THE ENGLISH GARDENS
219
quite
dark
hair. Families are
very
interesting. Nevertheless, there
is
no bath. But a young American has a bath next to his room
and I shall ask him if you might use it this once. And then we
shall see...." (The Grafin was partial to the word 'shall'.)
Meredith was irritated when the Grafin knocked at his door
and told him, "She
is
a great beauty! Shall we allow her not to
have a bath? Actually, she is a sad beauty, I believe. You shall
see her at dinner." Rather erotically he listened to the bath water
running; when it stopped he began busily typing, sitting up in a
virtuous way. Before dinner, he shaved for the second time that
day. A thing he did not like doing, generally. Singing into the
mirror and his interested eyes, he was pleased to note, when he
stripped for
his
own bath, that he still had the best part of his
Italian sun tan. He flexed his muscles for several minutes, got
into the tub, and then grew self-conscious of splashing as he
washed.
In the small gallery used as the guests' dining room, Mere–
dith sat down at his place and, as always, began teasing the
young waitress. He was asking had it been she who left the love
note in his sheets (she also served as maid) when he saw the
Grafin followed by a stately blond girl approaching his table. It
would be literary license calculated to glamorize life to say that
he, oh, dropped his napkin, so startled was he by Mary Jane's
beauty. Yet he did drop his badinage with the ordinary country
girl as much in deference to the Grafin as acknowledgement that
here, indeed, was something special. Mary Jane had made very
little effort. Above a dark green skirt she wore a pale green cash–
mere sweater with, as he soon perceived, no brassiere beneath.
Her white blond hair was clean and brushed long straight down
to her shoulders. Perhaps her eyes were larger .and more of a
summer blue for all they had seen and wept that day. She had
touched her face, truly a noble and pure face, only with a lip
salve which made her lips glisten but no redder than usual. The
result was grace and modesty.
As
she was rather tired this eve–
ning, her simple "Thank you for the use of your bath"-when
