PARTISAN R:EVIEW
231
this man's' ordinary, frIendly face there
~as
a
certain ruTogimt maleness
- then she relented, she smiled shyly.
'
"A nice house you've got there," the
man
said.
She nodded her thanks.
'
' ~
"
, ..
The man pushed his sunglasses up; on his forehead. Yes, she rec–
ognized the eyes of the day before - intelligent and nelVOUS, the sockets
pale, untanned.
"Is that your telephone ringing?" he said.
She did not bother to listen. "It's a wrong nUmber," -she said.
Her husband 'calling: she had' left home for a ,few days,
to
be alone.
'But the red-haired man, settling himself on the sand, seemed to
misinterpret this. He smiled in surprise, one ' corner of
his
mouth higher
than
the other. He said nothing. Anna wondered:
What
is
he thinking?
The dog'was leaping about her, panting against her legs, and she laughed
in embarrassment. She bent to pet it, grateful for its
busyness~
"Don't
let him jump up on you," the man said. "He's a nuisance."
The dog was a small goiden retriever, a yOung dog. The blind
child, standing now
in
the water, turned to call the dog to
him.
His
voice was shrill and iinpatient.
"Our house is the third one down - the white one," the man said.
, She turned, startled. "Oh, did you buy it from Dr. Patrick? Did he
die?"
''Yes, finally..
~
."
Her eyes wandered nelVously over the child and the dog. She felt
the nelVOUS beat of her heart out to the very tips of her fingers, the
fleshy
tips
of her fingers: little hearts were there, pulsing.
What is he
thinking?
The man had opened his ,notebook. ,He had a piece of char-
coal and he began to sketch something.
'
Anna looked down at him. She saw the top of his head, his thick
red
hair, the freckles on his shoulders, the quick, deft movement of his
hand. Upside down, Anna herself,being drawn. She smiled in surprise.
"Let
me
draw you. Sit ,down," he ,said.
She knelt awkwardly a few yards away. He turried the
page
of
the sketchpad. The dog ran to her and she sat, straightening out her
skirt beneath her, flinching froni the;d6g's 'tongue. "Ty!" cried the child.
Anna sat," and slowly the pleasure of the moment began to glow
m
her; her skin flUshed
with
gratitude. ' " , - , '
She sat there for '
nea~ly"
~
hour. The
man-
did 'riot
talk
much.
Back and forth the dog bounded,
shak~g
itself. The 'child
Cairi~
to sit
near 'them,
in
silence. Anna felt that she was drifting into a kind of
