384
PARTISAN REVIEW
wedding with the man she loved, who is gone forever, and poisons
herself. She dies with her eyes open and no one has come ye t
lO
shut
them ." Then the owner of the black house thought : "She was reall y a
lovely bride." And after a moment he was hap py to rea li ze he had
survived her. T hen he opened a glass door and entered the scene to have
a closer look. But a t the same time, th rough the no ise of the machin es
and the music, he thought he heard a door slam. He left the case and ,
caught in the door to the littl e parl or, he saw a piece o f hi s wife's dress.
As he tiptoed over to the door, he tho ught she must have been spy ing
on him, probabl y as another jo ke. He sna tched the door open and her
body fell o n him . He caught it in hi s arms; but it seemed very li gh t; and
he immedi ately recogni zed Daisy, the do ll who resembl ed her. Mean–
time his wife, who was crouching behind an armchair, stra ightened up
and sa id :
" I also wanted to give you a surpri se. 1 just had time to get her into
my dress."
She went o n ta lking, but he didn 't listen . Although he was pa le, he
thanked her for the sur prise. He didn 't want to di scourage her, becau se
he enj oyed the jo kes she made up with Daisy . But thi s time he'd felt
uncomfortable. So he handed Daisy back to her, saying he didn 't want
too long an intermi ss ion . Then he returned
to
the other room , closing
the door behind him, and wa lked toward Wa lter. But he stopped
halfway and opened ano ther door tha t gave on hi s stud y, where he shut
himself in , took a notebook from a drawer and proceeded to ma ke a
note of the jo ke hi s wife had just played on him with Da isy, and the
da te. First he read the prev ious note, whi ch sa id : " Jul y 21. Today,
Mary" -hi s wife's name was Daisy Ma ry; but she liked
to
be call ed
Mary; so when he had a doll made to look like her, they dec ided to use
the rusty name Daisy for the doll-"was lea ning o ut the balcony over
the garden. 1 wanted to surpri se her, putting my hands over her eyes.
But on my way to the balcony I saw it was Daisy. Mary had seen me go
lO
the balcon y; she was ri ght behind me, la ughing." Althoug h he was
the onl y one
lO
read the notebook, he signed each note with hi s name,
" Horace," in large letters and heavy ink. An earlier note sa id : "Jul y 18.
Today I opened the wardrobe to get my suit and found Daisy hanging
there. She was wearing my tails, whi ch looked ridiculously large
on her. "
Having made a note of the la tes t surpri se, he was back in the
showroom, heading for the second glass case. He fl ashed a li ght a t
Walter for him to go on to the next piece on the program and started to
roll up the podium.
In
the pause Wa lter made before taking up the new
piece, he felt the machines pounding harder; and as the podium
moved, the cas ters seemed to rumbl e like distant thunder.
