38
PARTISAN REVIEW
uterus and make certain
it
was covered by the rubber. When this
process had been rehearsed several times, to the watching doctor's
satisfaction, Dottie would be taught how and when to douche, how
much water to use, the proper height for the douche-bag, and how
to hold the labia firmly around the lubricated nozzle in order to get
the best results.
As
she was leaving the office, the nurse would present
her with a manila envelope containing a tube of vaginal jelly and
a small flat box with Dottie's personalized contraceptive in it. The
nurse would instruct her how to care for the pessary: to wash it
after each use, dry it carefully, and dust it with talcum before return–
ing it to its box.
Dottie's informed serenity had made Kay and John burst into
whoops of laughter, when they discussed it in private, after Dottie's
amazing visit to them in their new apartment. She had come bearing
a Georgian silver creamer for a wedding present, just the sort of
thing an old aunt would have inflicted on you, and a bunch of white
peonies, and while they were still endeavoring to conceal their disap–
pointment in a hunt for a proper vase (for the same money they
could have had something plain and modern from Jensen's!), she
had sat down and calmly announced to them that she had taken
Dick Brown as her lover. Coming from Dottie, that imperial phrase
was simply perfect, but fortunately they were too stunned even to
exchange a look, let alone smile. Their first conscious reaction was
one of guilt. Kay blamed herself for inviting Dick to the wedding
and John blamed the punch. They both immediately felt there was
an element of revenge in Dick's conduct; Dick thought he had been
invited because he was the only one of John's recent friends who was
outwardly presentable. At first glance, he looked like a gentleman,
though he was as queer a duck as you could meet, a dipsomaniac
and a violent misogynist, with a terrible inferiority complex because
of what had happened with his socialite wife. To Kay, in particular,
it seemed that he had deliberately broken a covenant : his presence
at the wedding had been conditional on his reflecting credit on John.
Yet they had only to look at Dottie, very crisp and assured in her
pearls and crepe-de-chine blouse and smart navy-blue sailor, sipping
her Clover Club cocktail out of the Russel Wright cup and wiping
a mustache of egg-white from her long upper lip with a cocktail
napkin, to feel the utter hopelessness of explaining Dick and his
