SUPPERBURGER
369
member when I was a girl being told by my grandmother that Swin–
burne was not the sort of thing a girl should read. Imagine that now.
P. It didn't seem old-fashioned to me, really.
MRS. S. Where's that one poem? "Laus Veneris."
It
was so
shocking. My poor grandmother. There it is: "... for her neck,
kissed over close, wears yet a purple speck wherein the pained blood
falters and goes out."
It is funny to hear Mrs. Supperburger talking about things like
that. Of course I know about them, hickeys the kids call them.
That
is
why I wear turtlenecks a lot, so they will not show if I am
going home for supper. It is especially hard in the summer when I
am on the beach a lot not to be embarrassed by them. Mrs. Supper–
burger seems a little nervous. She is talking more than usual.
MRS. S. "Lips that cling hard
till
the kissed face has grown
of one same fire and color with their own." It's so silly. Arthur loves it.
P. Aunt Ruth, you seem a little nervous today.
MRS. S. You're so funny, Patrick, the way you come right out
and say things. Well, I'll tell you the reason. It's our anniversary, our
twenty-fifth. Arthur and I were married on the twenty-first of
September, 1941.
P. I really oughtn't to come to supper on your anniversary.
MRS. S. Why not?
P. I mean you probably would rather be alone.
MRS. S. Not at all. Arthur wanted you to come especially. It's
a sort of party. Our nephew Louis is coming down from school.
He goes to college in the East now.
Do
you want cinnamon toast?
P. Yes, please.
Now Mrs. Supperburger is getting silent again. She is leafing
through the Swinburne with a sweet smile. I am drinking the tea
and picking out the most buttery cinnamon toasts. I am afraid their
nephew Louis is going to be one of those college kids, especially if
he is not from around here. I wonder if he is ever called Louie. I
usually do not like people who are always called by their full name.
If
the three of them start talking about intellectual things I might
get bored. I like intellectual things, but people usually talk about
them as if they were things everyone knew about already. Some of
the college kids come into the Doughnut Shop and
talk
about things
like Kierkegaard as if they invented them.
If
you want to say
