THE PRETENDER
539
HENRY:
Well, can't I see her?
JESSE:
The fact is we had a quarrel. She's gone to bed.
HENRY:
(sitting down again)
Well, just tell her I'm here.... I'll fix
things up between you. . . . I'm a natural-born peacemaker... .
JESSE:
It's odd that she's angry-very odd. For no reason at all-she
just flared up at me.
HENRY:
(drinking)
Nothing odd about flaring up at you, Jesse. You
are a very provoking man.
JESSE :
(tartly)
I thought you said you wanted to make peace?
HENRY:
SO I do, and so I shall. But I don't even know what this is
all about.
JESSE :
I suppose I could tell you.
HENRY:
Who has a better right to know?
JESSE:
There's only one reason we ever quarrel. Marianne complains
that I treat her too much like a lady, that I put her on a pedestal. ...
She finds that ridiculous. . . .
HENRY:
Marianne always had common sense.
JESSE:
I believe that real culture and true refinement are expressed
first of all in the treatment of women.... The white male-in most
parts of the world-has lost all feeling for courtesy: the way I've
seen white women spoken to!-and in what is considered good so–
ciety. Shocking. In this we see the decay of our culture.
HENRY:
And you think it is up to Negroes, like yourself, to set whites
an example of courteous behavior to women?
JESSE:
I couldn't have expressed it better myself.
HENRY:
Well, I think you are ridiculous. I agree with my sister.
JESSE:
But the odd thing is that tonight she's angry with me for the
exactly opposite reason. I treated her a bit roughly-sent her off on
an errand-and she got roughed up a bit. She must have had a fall.
Not a bad one. But her dress was tom and her cheek cut. She wouldn't
even tell me what happened. Because I had been inconsiderate enough
to send her on an errand for me.
HENRY:
What errand?
JESSE:
I sent her to post my speech to
L ife Magazine.
Oh, I didn't
tell you about that. I had a telegram from
Life
today.
Life
wants my
speech. The speech you won't listen to is going to be read by twenty
million Americans.
HENRY:
(sets down his glass and stands
up)
Where'd you send her to
post your speech?
JESSE:
To Suttonville, that's the only place where there's a store open
late. It had to be done. I couldn't go myself, and I had to send the
