TWO PROSTITUTES
437
The barman brought over his glass, put it down on the table
and went back to the bar, leaving the three of them alone in the
booth. The younger woman spoke up in a clear voice:
"It's plain now that that friend of yours isn't coming.
An
ill–
mannered fellow I call him."
"Sh!" said the older woman with annoyance.
"Why shouldn't I talk now?" asked the younger. "I repeat that
if he doesn't come he's ill-mannered."
"Very well," said the older, sitting as stiffly as if she were
afraid her hat would slip down over her nose, "but why shout about
it?"
"Who's shouting?"
"You are."
"All right. I shan't argue...." But she had spoken gaily and
without anger, perhaps, Giovanni thought, merely in order to catch
his attention. "Give me a cigarette, will you?" she added.
Giacomo had laid his cigarette-case beside his glass on the table
and he was quick to lean over and hold it out. The
girl
was no less
quick to accept, then she took the case in her hand and offered it to
her friend, who appeared to hesitate between the desire for a smoke
and resentment of the other's behavior.
"It's not really proper to take a cigarette upon so short an
acquaintance," she observed regretfully. But she took one and
looked at the name of the brand before putting it in her mouth. Then,
with the motion of a fine lady allowing a perfect gentleman to give
her a light, she leaned over the table toward Giacomo's lighter.
The other had already lit up and was blowing smoke out through her
nostrils.
"Hot, isn't it?" observed Giacomo, turning instinctively toward
the older of the two women, who he felt was still hostile to him.
This conventional remark seemed to please her, as if it were a
mark of undeserved respect.
"Frightful," she said in a cool and worldly tone of voice,
drawing in small mouthfuls of smoke and blowing them out again
without inhaling while she stared at the tip of her cigarette. "I
don't remember when there was ever anything like it."
"I'm perspiring all over," said the younger woman with a laugh,
raising her arm to show the dampness of her blouse underneath it.
