6
PARTISAN REVIEW
heat far inwards permeating the tree so its seemed to swim in the dancing air.
She felt so curiously as if she were spying as if some little peekhole
opened up and she would see into something, like once she had sat on the
back stairs looking through the butler's door at a tea, now she lay down
again and let herself spy on Arnold and she saw his fine surface but what
was in him? She had a great excitement as if about to draw
~omething
out. You could go on living with Arnold for a thousand years, pleasantly,
even gaily and you would never know anything about him, you would
never have a quarrel, you would never grow into something different, even
into a beast.
It
was as if he were manufactured like his silly little estate.
She felt excited as if she had discovered something. The perfect husband,
she thought, he is the perfect husband and no husband at all. In the heavy
summer stillness it was as if her mind had shouted this and she waited to
be shot for treason but the world did not shift nor move, the furry hills,
tawny, curved, ached towards the sun.
She stood up as if drunk, in the wine cart, and recalling some gaminry
of her childhood, she spat at the house.
Arnold came home at six. He didn't look as if the heat had touched
him. She seemed to see him too clearly, as if she had never seen him
before. He kissed her and she drew back but he didn't notice. He smiled
at her. He carried himself very tall as if he was always being what hr
thought a man ought to be, a Yale type perhaps. "Listen, Arnold, for
heaven's sake not so close, it's so hot and I'm all in, there hasn't been a
breath of air."
"Look at those fishermen fishing down there?" he said.
"Haven't I been looking at them all afternoon?'' He moved away
and looked annoyed at her.
"This heat is unheard of," he said, "such a prolonged spell."
She felt she still had one eye closed as if cunningly spying on him.
Yes, she thought, I've married above me. Those fishermen can't be really
fishing, it's all a part of the game. "Won't they catch anything?" she said.
"What is it dear?"
"Those fishermen ..."
"Next year I'll have to bring in some more fish."
"You mean put fish in the lake?"
"Yes," he flicked over the evening paper in his long white hands.
Stella suddenly wanted to strike him. She walked over and looked
out the window, a purple haze was rising from the sun drunk earth. Arnold
made an exclamation, she turned surprised and caught a close, cruel ex·
pression on his small face. She cried out without thinking, "Arnold what
is it? What is the matter?"
"A great deal is the matter," he said in a terrible precise way. "We
are going to fix them."
