"You don"t know!" he said. "You do so, too, know."
"I do not," she said. "Who? Florence Leaming?"
"Oh, Florence Leaming, my eye!" he said. "Getting sore about Florence Leaming! And me not sleeping all last night and not doing a stroke of work all day because you wouldn"t speak to me! A girl like you getting sore about a girl like Florence Leaming!"
"I think you"re just perfectly crazy," she said. "I was not sore! What on earth ever made you think I was? You"re simply crazy. Ow, my new pearl beads! Wait a second till I take them off. There!"
The New Republic, July 13, 1927.
Arrangement in Black and White.
The woman with the pink velvet poppies twined round the a.s.sisted gold of her hair traversed the crowded room at an interesting gait combining a skip with a sidle, and clutched the lean arm of her host.
"Now I got you!" she said. "Now you can"t get away!"
"Why, h.e.l.lo," said her host. "Well. How are you?"
"Oh, I"m finely," she said. "Just simply finely. Listen, I want you to do me the most terrible favor. Will you? Will you please? Pretty please?"
"What is it?" said her host.
"Listen," she said. "I want to meet Walter Williams. Honestly, I"m just simply crazy about that man. Oh, when he sings! When he sings those spirituals! Well, I said to Burton, "It"s a good thing for you Walter Williams is colored," I said, "or you"d have lots of reason to be jealous." I"d really love to meet him. I"d like to tell him I"ve heard him sing. Will you be an angel and introduce me to him?"
"Why, certainly," said her host. "I thought you"d met him. The party"s for him. Where is he, anyway?"
"He"s over there by the bookcase," she said. "Let"s wait till those people get through talking to him. Well, I think you"re simply marvelous, giving this perfectly marvelous party for him, and having him meet all these white people, and all. Isn"t he terribly grateful?"
"I hope not," said her host.
"I think it"s really terribly nice," she said. "I do. I don"t see why on earth it isn"t perfectly all right to meet colored people. I haven"t any feeling at all about it-not one single bit. Burton-oh, he"s just the other way. Well, you know, he comes from Virginia, and you know how they are."
"Did he come tonight?" said her host.
"No, he couldn"t," she said. "I"m a regular gra.s.s widow tonight. I told him when I left, "There"s no telling what I"ll do," I said. He was just so tired out, he couldn"t move. Isn"t it a shame?"
"Ah," said her host.
"Wait till I tell him I met Walter Williams!" she said. "He"ll just about die. Oh, we have more arguments about colored people. I talk to him like I don"t know what, I get so excited. "Oh, don"t be so silly," I say. But I must say for Burton, he"s heaps broader-minded than lots of these Southerners. He"s really awfully fond of colored people. Well, he says himself, he wouldn"t have white servants. And you know, he had this old colored nurse, this regular old n.i.g.g.e.r mammy, and he just simply loves her. Why, every time he goes home, he goes out in the kitchen to see her. He does, really, to this day. All he says is, he says he hasn"t got a word to say against colored people as long as they keep their place. He"s always doing things for them-giving them clothes and I don"t know what all. The only thing he says, he says he wouldn"t sit down at the table with one for a million dollars. "Oh," I say to him, "you make me sick, talking like that." I"m just terrible to him. Aren"t I terrible?"
"Oh, no, no, no," said her host. "No, no."
"I am," she said. "I know I am. Poor Burton! Now, me, I don"t feel that way at all. I haven"t the slightest feeling about colored people. Why, I"m just crazy about some of them. They"re just like children-just as easy-going, and always singing and laughing and everything. Aren"t they the happiest things you ever saw in your life? Honestly, it makes me laugh just to hear them. Oh, I like them. I really do. Well, now, listen, I have this colored laundress, I"ve had her for years, and I"m devoted to her. She"s a real character. And I want to tell you, I think of her as my friend. That"s the way I think of her. As I say to Burton, "Well, for Heaven"s sakes, we"re all human beings!" Aren"t we?"
"Yes," said her host. "Yes, indeed."
"Now this Walter Williams," she said. "I think a man like that"s a real artist. I do. I think he deserves an awful lot of credit. Goodness, I"m so crazy about music or anything, I don"t care what color he is. I honestly think if a person"s an artist, n.o.body ought to have any feeling at all about meeting them. That"s absolutely what I say to Burton. Don"t you think I"m right?"
"Yes," said her host. "Oh, yes."
"That"s the way I feel," she said. "I just can"t understand people being narrow-minded. Why, I absolutely think it"s a privilege to meet a man like Walter Williams. Yes, I do. I haven"t any feeling at all. Well, my goodness, the good Lord made him, just the same as He did any of us. Didn"t He?"
"Surely," said her host. "Yes, indeed."
"That"s what I say," she said. "Oh, I get so furious when people are narrow-minded about colored people. It"s just all I can do not to say something. Of course, I do admit when you get a bad colored man, they"re simply terrible. But as I say to Burton, there are some bad white people, too, in this world. Aren"t there?"
"I guess there are," said her host.
"Why, I"d really be glad to have a man like Walter Williams come to my house and sing for us, some time," she said. "Of course, I couldn"t ask him on account of Burton, but I wouldn"t have any feeling about it at all. Oh, can"t he sing! Isn"t it marvelous, the way they all have music in them? It just seems to be right in them. Come on, let"s us go on over and talk to him. Listen, what shall I do when I"m introduced? Ought I to shake hands? Or what?"
"Why, do whatever you want," said her host.
"I guess maybe I"d better," she said. "I wouldn"t for the world have him think I had any feeling. I think I"d better shake hands, just the way I would with anybody else. That"s just exactly what I"ll do."
They reached the tall young Negro, standing by the bookcase. The host performed introductions; the Negro bowed.
"How do you do?" he said.
The woman with the pink velvet poppies extended her hand at the length of her arm and held it so for all the world to see, until the Negro took it, shook it, and gave it back to her.
"Oh, how do you do, Mr. Williams," she said. "Well, how do you do. I"ve just been saying, I"ve enjoyed your singing so awfully much. I"ve been to your concerts, and we have you on the phonograph and everything. Oh, I just enjoy it!"
She spoke with great distinctness, moving her lips meticulously, as if in parlance with the deaf.
"I"m so glad," he said.
"I"m just simply crazy about that "Water Boy" thing you sing," she said. "Honestly, I can"t get it out of my head. I have my husband nearly crazy, the way I go around humming it all the time. Oh, he looks just as black as the ace of-Well. Tell me, where on earth do you ever get all those songs of yours? How do you ever get hold of them?"
"Why," he said, "there are so many different--"
"I should think you"d love singing them," she said. "It must be more fun. All those darling old spirituals-oh, I just love them! Well, what are you doing, now? Are you still keeping up your singing? Why don"t you have another concert, some time?"
"I"m having one the sixteenth of this month," he said.
"Well, I"ll be there," she said. "I"ll be there, if I possibly can. You can count on me. Goodness, here comes a whole raft of people to talk to you. You"re just a regular guest of honor! Oh, who"s that girl in white? I"ve seen her some place."
"That"s Katherine Burke," said her host.
"Good Heavens," she said, "is that Katherine Burke? Why, she looks entirely different off the stage. I thought she was much better-looking. I had no idea she was so terribly dark. Why, she looks almost like-Oh, I think she"s a wonderful actress! Don"t you think she"s a wonderful actress, Mr. Williams? Oh, I think she"s marvelous. Don"t you?"
"Yes, I do," he said.
"Oh, I do, too," she said. "Just wonderful. Well, goodness, we must give someone else a chance to talk to the guest of honor. Now, don"t forget, Mr. Williams, I"m going to be at that concert if I possibly can. I"ll be there applauding like everything. And if I can"t come, I"m going to tell everybody I know to go, anyway. Don"t you forget!"
"I won"t," he said. "Thank you so much."
The host took her arm and piloted her into the next room.
"Oh, my dear," she said. "I nearly died! Honestly, I give you my word, I nearly pa.s.sed away. Did you hear that terrible break I made? I was just going to say Katherine Burke looked almost like a n.i.g.g.e.r. I just caught myself in time. Oh, do you think he noticed?"
"I don"t believe so," said her host.
"Well, thank goodness," she said, "because I wouldn"t have embarra.s.sed him for anything. Why, he"s awfully nice. Just as nice as he can be. Nice manners, and everything. You know, so many colored people, you give them an inch, and they walk all over you. But he doesn"t try any of that. Well, he"s got more sense, I suppose. He"s really nice. Don"t you think so?"
"Yes," said her host.
"I liked him," she said. "I haven"t any feeling at all because he"s a colored man. I felt just as natural as I would with anybody. Talked to him just as naturally, and everything. But honestly, I could hardly keep a straight face. I kept thinking of Burton. Oh, wait till I tell Burton I called him "Mister"!"
The New Yorker, October 8, 1927.
A Telephone Call.
Please, G.o.d, let him telephone me now. Dear G.o.d, let him call me now. I won"t ask anything else of You, truly I won"t. It isn"t very much to ask. It would be so little to You, G.o.d, such a little, little thing. Only let him telephone now. Please, G.o.d. Please, please, please.
If I didn"t think about it, maybe the telephone might ring. Sometimes it does that. If I could think of something else. If I could think of something else. Maybe if I counted five hundred by fives, it might ring by that time. I"ll count slowly. I won"t cheat. And if it rings when I get to three hundred, I won"t stop; I won"t answer it until I get to five hundred. Five, ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty-five, thirty, thirty-five, forty, forty-five, fifty. . . . Oh, please ring. Please.
This is the last time I"ll look at the clock. I will not look at it again. It"s ten minutes past seven. He said he would telephone at five o"clock. "I"ll call you at five, darling." I think that"s where he said "darling." I"m almost sure he said it there. I know he called me "darling" twice, and the other time was when he said good-by. "Good-by, darling." He was busy, and he can"t say much in the office, but he called me "darling" twice. He couldn"t have minded my calling him up. I know you shouldn"t keep telephoning them-I know they don"t like that. When you do that, they know you are thinking about them and wanting them, and that makes them hate you. But I hadn"t talked to him in three days-not in three days. And all I did was ask him how he was; it was just the way anybody might have called him up. He couldn"t have minded that. He couldn"t have thought I was bothering him. "No, of course you"re not," he said. And he said he"d telephone me. He didn"t have to say that. I didn"t ask him to, truly I didn"t. I"m sure I didn"t. I don"t think he would say he"d telephone me, and then just never do it. Please don"t let him do that, G.o.d. Please don"t.
"I"ll call you at five, darling." "Good-by, darling." He was busy, and he was in a hurry, and there were people around him, but he called me "darling" twice. That"s mine, that"s mine. I have that, even if I never see him again. Oh, but that"s so little. That isn"t enough. Nothing"s enough, if I never see him again. Please let me see him again, G.o.d. Please, I want him so much. I want him so much. I"ll be good, G.o.d. I will try to be better, I will, if You will let me see him again. If You will let him telephone me. Oh, let him telephone me now.
Ah, don"t let my prayer seem too little to You, G.o.d. You sit up there, so white and old, with all the angels about You and the stars slipping by. And I come to You with a prayer about a telephone call. Ah, don"t laugh, G.o.d. You see, You don"t know how it feels. You"re so safe, there on Your throne, with the blue swirling under You. Nothing can touch You; no one can twist Your heart in his hands. This is suffering, G.o.d, this is bad, bad suffering. Won"t You help me? For Your Son"s sake, help me. You said You would do whatever was asked of You in His name. Oh, G.o.d, in the name of Thine only beloved Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, let him telephone me now.
I must stop this. I mustn"t be this way. Look. Suppose a young man says he"ll call a girl up, and then something happens, and he doesn"t. That isn"t so terrible, is it? Why, it"s going on all over the world, right this minute. Oh, what do I care what"s going on all over the world? Why can"t that telephone ring? Why can"t it, why can"t it? Couldn"t you ring? Ah, please, couldn"t you? You d.a.m.ned, ugly, shiny thing. It would hurt you to ring, wouldn"t it? Oh, that would hurt you. d.a.m.n you, I"ll pull your filthy roots out of the wall, I"ll smash your smug black face in little bits. d.a.m.n you to h.e.l.l.
No, no, no. I must stop. I must think about something else. This is what I"ll do. I"ll put the clock in the other room. Then I can"t look at it. If I do have to look at it, then I"ll have to walk into the bedroom, and that will be something to do. Maybe, before I look at it again, he will call me. I"ll be so sweet to him, if he calls me. If he says he can"t see me tonight, I"ll say, "Why, that"s all right, dear. Why, of course it"s all right." I"ll be the way I was when I first met him. Then maybe he"ll like me again. I was always sweet, at first. Oh, it"s so easy to be sweet to people before you love them.
I think he must still like me a little. He couldn"t have called me "darling" twice today, if he didn"t still like me a little. It isn"t all gone, if he still likes me a little; even if it"s only a little, little bit. You see, G.o.d, if You would just let him telephone me, I wouldn"t have to ask You anything more. I would be sweet to him, I would be gay, I would be just the way I used to be, and then he would love me again. And then I would never have to ask You for anything more. Don"t You see, G.o.d? So won"t You please let him telephone me? Won"t You please, please, please?
Are You punishing me, G.o.d, because I"ve been bad? Are You angry with me because I did that? Oh, but, G.o.d, there are so many bad people-You could not be hard only to me. And it wasn"t very bad; it couldn"t have been bad. We didn"t hurt anybody, G.o.d. Things are only bad when they hurt people. We didn"t hurt one single soul; You know that. You know it wasn"t bad, don"t You, G.o.d? So won"t You let him telephone me now?
If he doesn"t telephone me, I"ll know G.o.d is angry with me. I"ll count five hundred by fives, and if he hasn"t called me then, I will know G.o.d isn"t going to help me, ever again. That will be the sign. Five, ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty-five, thirty, thirty-five, forty, forty-five, fifty, fifty-five . . . It was bad. I knew it was bad. All right, G.o.d, send me to h.e.l.l. You think You"re frightening me with Your h.e.l.l, don"t You? You think Your h.e.l.l is worse than mine.
I mustn"t. I mustn"t do this. Suppose he"s a little late calling up-that"s nothing to get hysterical about. Maybe he isn"t going to call-maybe he"s coming straight up here without telephoning. He"ll be cross if he sees I have been crying. They don"t like you to cry. He doesn"t cry. I wish to G.o.d I could make him cry. I wish I could make him cry and tread the floor and feel his heart heavy and big and festering in him. I wish I could hurt him like h.e.l.l.
He doesn"t wish that about me. I don"t think he even knows how he makes me feel. I wish he could know, without my telling him. They don"t like you to tell them they"ve made you cry. They don"t like you to tell them you"re unhappy because of them. If you do, they think you"re possessive and exacting. And then they hate you. They hate you whenever you say anything you really think. You always have to keep playing little games. Oh, I thought we didn"t have to; I thought this was so big I could say whatever I meant. I guess you can"t, ever. I guess there isn"t ever anything big enough for that. Oh, if he would just telephone, I wouldn"t tell him I had been sad about him. They hate sad people. I would be so sweet and so gay, he couldn"t help but like me. If he would only telephone. If he would only telephone.
Maybe that"s what he is doing. Maybe he is coming on here without calling me up. Maybe he"s on his way now. Something might have happened to him. No, nothing could ever happen to him. I can"t picture anything happening to him. I never picture him run over. I never see him lying still and long and dead. I wish he were dead. That"s a terrible wish. That"s a lovely wish. If he were dead, he would be mine. If he were dead, I would never think of now and the last few weeks. I would remember only the lovely times. It would be all beautiful. I wish he were dead. I wish he were dead, dead, dead.
This is silly. It"s silly to go wishing people were dead just because they don"t call you up the very minute they said they would. Maybe the clock"s fast; I don"t know whether it"s right. Maybe he"s hardly late at all. Anything could have made him a little late. Maybe he had to stay at his office. Maybe he went home, to call me up from there, and somebody came in. He doesn"t like to telephone me in front of people. Maybe he"s worried, just a little, little bit, about keeping me waiting. He might even hope that I would call him up. I could do that. I could telephone him.
I mustn"t. I mustn"t, I mustn"t. Oh, G.o.d, please don"t let me telephone him. Please keep me from doing that. I know, G.o.d, just as well as You do, that if he were worried about me, he"d telephone no matter where he was or how many people there were around him. Please make me know that, G.o.d. I don"t ask You to make it easy for me-You can"t do that, for all that You could make a world. Only let me know it, G.o.d. Don"t let me go on hoping. Don"t let me say comforting things to myself. Please don"t let me hope, dear G.o.d. Please don"t.
I won"t telephone him. I"ll never telephone him again as long as I live. He"ll rot in h.e.l.l, before I"ll call him up. You don"t have to give me strength, G.o.d; I have it myself. If he wanted me, he could get me. He knows where I am. He knows I"m waiting here. He"s so sure of me, so sure. I wonder why they hate you, as soon as they are sure of you. I should think it would be so sweet to be sure.
It would be so easy to telephone him. Then I"d know. Maybe it wouldn"t be a foolish thing to do. Maybe he wouldn"t mind. Maybe he"d like it. Maybe he has been trying to get me. Sometimes people try and try to get you on the telephone, and they say the number doesn"t answer. I"m not just saying that to help myself; that really happens. You know that really happens, G.o.d. Oh, G.o.d, keep me away from that telephone. Keep me away. Let me still have just a little bit of pride. I think I"m going to need it, G.o.d. I think it will be all I"ll have.
Oh, what does pride matter, when I can"t stand it if I don"t talk to him? Pride like that is such a silly, shabby little thing. The real pride, the big pride, is in having no pride. I"m not saying that just because I want to call him. I am not. That"s true, I know that"s true. I will be big. I will be beyond little prides.
Please, G.o.d, keep me from telephoning him. Please, G.o.d.
I don"t see what pride has to do with it. This is such a little thing, for me to be bringing in pride, for me to be making such a fuss about. I may have misunderstood him. Maybe he said for me to call him up, at five. "Call me at five, darling." He could have said that, perfectly well. It"s so possible that I didn"t hear him right. "Call me at five, darling." I"m almost sure that"s what he said. G.o.d, don"t let me talk this way to myself. Make me know, please make me know.
I"ll think about something else. I"ll just sit quietly. If I could sit still. If I could sit still. Maybe I could read. Oh, all the books are about people who love each other, truly and sweetly. What do they want to write about that for? Don"t they know it isn"t true? Don"t they know it"s a lie, it"s a G.o.d d.a.m.ned lie? What do they have to tell about that for, when they know how it hurts? d.a.m.n them, d.a.m.n them, d.a.m.n them.
I won"t. I"ll be quiet. This is nothing to get excited about. Look. Suppose he were someone I didn"t know very well. Suppose he were another girl. Then I"d just telephone and say, "Well, for goodness" sake, what happened to you?" That"s what I"d do, and I"d never even think about it. Why can"t I be casual and natural, just because I love him? I can be. Honestly, I can be. I"ll call him up, and be so easy and pleasant. You see if I won"t, G.o.d. Oh, don"t let me call him. Don"t, don"t, don"t.
G.o.d, aren"t You really going to let him call me? Are You sure, G.o.d? Couldn"t You please relent? Couldn"t You? I don"t even ask You to let him telephone me this minute, G.o.d; only let him do it in a little while. I"ll count five hundred by fives. I"ll do it so slowly and so fairly. If he hasn"t telephoned then, I"ll call him. I will. Oh, please, dear G.o.d, dear kind G.o.d, my blessed Father in Heaven, let him call before then. Please, G.o.d. Please.
Five, ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty-five, thirty, thirty-five . . .
The Bookman, January 1928.
A Terrible Day Tomorrow.
The woman in the leopard-skin coat and the man with the gentian-blue m.u.f.fler wormed along the dim, table-bordered lanes of the speakeasy.
"Sit down any place you see," he said. "It"s only just for a minute. Here"s a table-this"ll do, won"t it?"
"Oh, yes," she said. "This is perfectly all right."
They sat down. A stocky lad in his shirt sleeves, and those rolled up, appeared beside the table, and made a friendly grin.
"h.e.l.lo, there, Gus," said the man with the gentian-blue m.u.f.fler. "We"re only going to be here just a minute. You might bring us a couple of specials-that what you want, dear? All right, Gus, a couple of specials, and hurry them along, will you? I"ve got to get home early-I"ve got a terrible day tomorrow."
Gus vanished.
"Want to take your coat off?" said the man with the gentian-blue m.u.f.fler.
"Oh, I don"t think so," said the woman in the leopard-skin coat. "It isn"t worth while."
"No, it isn"t, really," he said. "I"ve simply got to get to bed early. I"ve got to be in the office at crack o" dawn. I mean it. What a day I"ve got ahead of me! Boy, what a day!"