276
PARTISAN REVIEW
"That doctor was just a wise guy," said Paddles, disgusted
and interested.
"Never mind him," said Tobias, "the remarkable thing was
that the same idea began to percolate in fashionable schools for
girls,
and one girl told me that she knew what it was to be in love. When
you are in love, she said, you don't mind using the same toothbrush
as the man you're in love with."
"Brother, have another on the house," said Gabriel. "You've
been walking on the bottom of the river."
"How did you get out of it?" asked Paddles. "Or did you get
out of it? Does anyone ever get out of it?"
"Probably yes and probably no," said Tobias, smiling a little.
"Now look," said Gabriel, impatient, "here we are having a
very interesting discussion and you have to interrupt it with double
talk every now and again. Did you or did you not ever get out of it?"
"I was serious; I was not talking double talk," said Tobias
carefully. "I did get out of it, in a way, but in a way, I did not
because I went and fell in love with another girl who was very
nice and not at all like the toothbrush girl and who liked me very
much,
if
you boys will forgive me for boasting
a
little."
"Boast all you want," said Paddles, "but tell us what the final
score was--"
"The game has gone into extra innings," said Tobias.
"But look, if you fell in love with the girl and she liked you
very much, what went wrong? That's the way all the pictures
end-" said Paddles, distressed and perplexed.
"-Not any more they don't," said Gabriel. "What happened
in the ninth inning?"
"The girl's father hit a homer with the bases loaded, sending
the game into extra innings," said Tobias. "He swung from below
the belt, stepping out of the batter's box."
"Look," said Gabriel, "are you or are you not going to tell
us what happened and finish the story?"
"It is only once in a while," said Tobias, "that I think
I
know
what happened and this is not one of my intelligent nights. How
about another Scotch on the rocks? Swiss cheese is full of holes,"
he added pointlessly.
Gabriel poured the whisky in Tobias' glass after putting two
cubes of
ice
in it.
