NEW YEAR'S EVE
343
any case to behave yourself."
"Why?" screamed Delia in fury, "Why? Why should I behave
myself?
What does it ever get me? Everyone is against me) anyway.
No one cares for me and no one ever will."
Oliver agreed with her, but was unable to endure the shame
of her screaming, audible
all
over.
"Why?" she continued to scream without adding any expla-
nation.
"Behave yourself because
I
brought you here," said Oliver curtly.
"Why?" she screamed more loudly than ever.
"This is what
I
get for bringing you here, out of a misplaced
sense of pity," said Oliver.
She slapped him in the face and said that she was going to
kill
herself. He held her
arms
and she struggled against him. Arthur
entered.
"Come now," he said in a friendly way which Delia misunder–
stood, "everything will be all right."
"Who asked you to come in here?" she said screaming again.
"After all,
I
live here," said Arthur, astounded by her attack.
Delia broke loose from Oliver's hold and slapped Arthur, who now
regretted profoundly his entrance, as well as what he had just said.
And then Frances came into the room with a cold compress for
Delia. Frances had been kind to Delia, and Delia felt that at la.."t she
had an ally.
"Go away," said Frances to Oliver, and Arthur.
"You are my friend," said Delia to Frances, weeping and once
more limp. And thus, after a time, Frances succeeded in quieting Delia,
who became very ashamed, although Frances sought to assure her
that no one regarded her behavior as anything but an attack of illness.
Meanwhile the unseen scene was discussed in the living room.
And then Wilhelmina noticed that they had not marked the moment
of the New Year, when the party horns are blown, whistles peal,
everyone kisses, and sings "Auld Lang Sync." The radio was playing
that they might know the exact moment of passage and unbearable
beauty. But Delia's screaming had made them unaware of every–
thing else.
They
all
went to the window to make sure that it was already
the New Year; and they saw that the rain had turned into snow,
the most beautiful of all the illusions of the natural world. Yes, it was
1938. How strange that it should be 1938, how strange seemed the
word and the fact.
