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PARTISAN REVIEW
intend to be hurt again. Nice people get kicked in the face."
"Not all the time," said Tobias. "Maybe the ensign did not
want to kick you in the face. He just wanted to have some fun
and he just thought you wanted to have some fun."
"Sure, Emma," said Gabriel, "he meant no harm. It is done
all the time. Everyone goes to sit in the dark. Why should you
be
different? How was he to know that you were different?"
"I hate men," said Emma as if she were answering all the
questions once and for all and making an exact statement of justice
and originality.
"How about a girl?" said Paddles the trumpeter who had just
come from the dance floor. "I know some pretty girls. Or do you
hate girls too?"
"I don't like girls either," said Emma. "I just like myself."
"What are you after, anyway?" asked Gabriel in a tone of
condemnation.
"I want some dollars and then I want some more dollars,"
said Emma, meaning
$:
in hoc signa vince.
"Baby," said Paddles, who was thin and balding, "if I had
what you have, I'd have all the dollars I wanted."
"No one can have it," said Emma. "How about buying me a
drink?" she said to Tobias.
"Buy your own drinks," said Gabriel, surrendering to his irri–
tation. But Tobias nodded to Gabriel who proceeded to mix a high–
ball for Emma.
"What are you holding on to your money for, anyway?" said
Gabr-iel as he gave her the highball.
"To get my teeth fixed," said Emma, taking a big gulp and
lighting a cigarette. "One hundred and twenty dollars."
"Your teeth look fine, " said Paddles, sipping a beer.
"That's why they look fine," said Emma, "because I always
have them fixed by an expensive dentist. I take care of my teeth
because I want to die with all my own teeth in my head."
"If
I had what you have," said Paddles as if he had not made
almost the same remark before, "I would get my teeth fixed for
nothing."
"I would rather pay," said Emma. "I hate men. They just
want one thing, just one thing."
