234
DAVID JACKSON
The Gennans were dazzled by Mary Jane. "Does she speak
Gennan?" asked Christian, in Gennan.
"la,"
said Mary Jane, who had a Gennan grandfather,
from Munich, as a matter of fact.
"Aber der Manas, hier, spricht
kein Wort."
And she waved a hand at Nicolas. "We will speak
English then, for our Nicolas," Christian said. He believed Mary
Jane was Nicolas's possession, and he hoped to win favor with
her. Nicolas, of course, had so persuaded him.
"Gee," Nicolas munnured, "you speak this stuff, huh?" He
gazed at her with admiring eyes. "She is full of surprises," he an–
nounced. Mary Jane merely smiled and blew smoke up in the air.
Soon, Meredith and the other two were talking about the
new Berlin ultimatum and Nicolas turned, confidentially, to
Mary Jane:
"You hate Nicolas, right?"
"No."
"Why the freeze?"
"I'm occupied, that's all."
"Yeh, I'll bet!" Nicolas laughed, imagining she would join
him.
"You're a crude one, Nicolas," she told him.
His voice was suddenly low and fierce, "Look, don't cross
Nicolas up."
"You'll do that for yourself." And, thinking it was too easy
a contest, Mary Jane made the mistake of turning away from
him to listen to the others.
Nicolas waited until there was a pause, after an order for
another round of beers, and he laid his hand on Mary Jane's
ann, saying, as
if
unaware anyone could hear, "Let's not fight,
huh? We all oughta love each other, right?" This was the first
time it had dawned on Meredith there had been a fight. He
looked at Mary Jane. She lost her head, a moment, shook off
Nicolas's hand, and said, "Oh, do stop it!"
."O.K., O.K...." he replied, grinning at Meredith, shrug–
ging, as if to say, 'These women .. .' Meredith's bewildennent
