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PARTISAN REVIEW
to wa it until Mary got back, he went to bed. As he stre tched ou t under
the covers, he to uched a strange o bj ect with the ti p of hi s foo t and
jumped up. For a moment he stood there, then pull ed back the covers.
It was a no te from Mary tha t said : " Horace : here's your mi stress. I've
also stabbed her. But I can admit it-not like a certain h ypocrite I know
who just wanted to send her in to have filth y things do ne to her. You 've
sickened my life and I'll thank you not
to
look for me. Mary. "
He went back to bed, but couldn 't sleep and go t up aga in . He
avoided her thin gs on the dresser as he avoided her face when they were
quarreling. T hen he went to the mov ies. T here he shook hands with an
o ld enemy, without rea li zing it. He kept thinking of Ma ry.
When he got bac k, there was still a bit of sun filtering in to the
bedroom . As he went by one of the covered mi rrors, he saw his face in
it, th rough the wisp y curtain , ca tching the sun , whi ch made it look
bri ght as a ghos t. With a shudder , he closed the windows and lay down .
If
his luck was coming bac k, after a ll these years, it wouldn 't be for
long; nor would it come a lone, but wrapped in stran ge circumstances ,
as the ones he'd been coping with because of Da isy, who still lay there,
a few feet away. At leas t her body wouldn 't rot, he tho ught, wondering
a t how little it had to do with the spiri t tha t had once inh abited it. And
so, mi ghtn 't tha t spirit have delibera tely provoked Mary's wrath , so
there would be a corpse be tween them , Horace and Mary? He coul dn 't
sleep , wa tching the ghos tl y sha pes of the room , whi ch seemed to echo
the noise o f the machines. He got up, went
to
the tabl e and drank some
wine. As the evening wore on he became more and more awa re o f
Mary's absence. He mi ssed their kiss after dinner. Alone with his coffee
in the littl e parlor , he decided he ought
to
avoid the house while she
was gone; and when he went out for a walk a bit la ter , he loo ked for a
student ho tel he remem bered seeing in the neighborhood. A pa lm grew
in the doorway and a row of glinting mirrors led all the way up the
stairs; so he walked on. T he sight of so many mirrors in a sin g le day
was a dangerous sign . But then he remem bered wha t he' d to ld Frank
early tha t morning about wanting to see an arm ha ng ing from a
mirror. He also remembered the blonde doll , and hi s new bo ldness, and
turned back. He brushed pas t the palm and tri ed to climb the sta irs
without looking a t himself in the mirrors.
It
was a long time since he'd
seen so many a t once and the confusion of images made hi s head sp in .
He even thought there mi ght be someone hidden among the refl ec–
tions. T he lady who ran the place met him upstairs a nd showed him
the free rooms, whi ch all had great bi g mirrors. He ch ose the best and
sa id he'd be back in an hour. At home, he pac ked a sma ll sui tcase; and
on his way bac k to the hotel he remembered it had once been a bro thel:
