406
PARTISAN REVIEW
carried her head hi gh around the neighborhood, but wa lked in a Clo ud ,
thinking: "I'm a woman who has los t her man to a do ll. But if he coul d
see me now he'd
be
drawn LO me." Bac k in her room , she opened a book
of poems, bound in blue o ilcl oth , and started
La
read out loud , in an
absent vo ice, waitin g aga in . When he didn 't show up, she tried to see
in LO the poems, as if someone had just left a door open by chance for
her to peep in. Then , for a moment, it seemed to her the wallpaper, the
fo lding screen , even the bright taps of the washbowl also understood
the poems. swept up in their lofty rhythms and no ble images. Often , in
the middl e of the ni ght, she switched on her lamp and chose a poem as
if she were choos in g a dream. Out wa lking aga in the next day, she
imag ined her steps were poe try. And one mornin g she decided : ''I'd like
Horace to think of me wa lking alone among trees, w ith a book in my
hand ."
She she packed aga in , sent for her chauffeur and had him dri ve her
out LO a p lace belonging to a cousin of her mother's : it was a tree-lined
suburb . T he cousin was an o ld spinster who lived in an a ncient house.
When her huge bulk came heaving through the dim rooms, ma king the
fl oor crea k, a parrot squaw ked: "Hell o, milksops." Mary poured her
heart. out to her w ithout a sniffl e. The fa t cousin was horrified , then
indignant , and fin a ll y in tea rs. But Mary ca lml y dispatch ed the
chauffeur to ge t money from Horace. In case Horace as ked after her , he
was to say, as if on his own , tha t she was wa lkin g among the trees with
a book in her hand .
If
he wanted to know where she was, he should tell
him . Fina ll y, he was to report bac k a t the same time the next day. Then
she went and sa t under a tree with her book, and the poems sta rted to
fl oa t and spread through the garden as if fillin g in the shapes of trees
and cl ouds.
At lunch the fa t cousin brooded ; but then she as ked: "Wha t are you
go ing to do with the pi g?"
"Wa it for him and forg ive him."
" No t a t a ll like you, my dear. This man has turned your head and
you're still dancing to hi s tune like one of hi s do ll s."
Ma ry lowered her eyes in blissful sil ence. But la ter tha t afternoon ,
th e cl eaning woman came in with the previous day's evening paper,
and Mary no ticed a headline tha t sa id : " Frank 's Daisy Do lls." She
couldn 't help reading the leafl et announcing "a fa ncy display on the
top fl oor of our smartes t department store. We understand some of the
do ll s wearing the la tes t fas hi ons will
be
Daisies . And tha t Frank , the
famo us doll manufacturer, will at the same time be joinin g the firm
tha t runs the store. More evidence of the ala rming rate a t which thi s
new version of ori g inal sin-to whi ch we have a lready referred in
