120
PARTISAN REVIEW
An extraordinary face! Not exactly beautiful. ... But yes, beautiful
in a sense, in the attenuation of an aquiline nose and thin cheeks
sinking beneath sharp cheekbones.
It
was a beautiful face in its dignity,
severity, its cold smoothness. And there was something more in the
expression of her mouth, now that Lutz could see it clearly, a sharpness
or irrelevance kinking her lips up at the corner. ... Maybe something
tinny left over from youth. Or a vein of craftiness. Perhaps her steady
gray eyes exposed more than she realized-the glint of cunning?
Inside Lutz an idea loudly clanked. And the longer that clank
echoed the more it pushed up laughter that bucked and knocked him so
hard he had to squeeze shut his eyes, clench his teeth. But it twisted his
face into a tight, no doubt gruesome grin, and a snort escaped. Taking
it for a sob, she drew Lutz to her and patted his back. "There. There."
Lutz risked another look. ...
And instead of kissing this "Ida O 'Shey" as obviously he was
supposed to at this point, he let his arm steal around her and, giving
her an equivocal little squeeze which sent a flicker of uncertainty (or
was it goatish glee?) across her face, Lutz drew her into the house.
He was sitting in the dark when the parlor door swung open and
Abbott trotted in . " Hi ho! " Lutz called. "Where have you been all
day? "
"Let's have some light. "
"Of course! There must be some matches here somewhere.... Ah,
here are Miss O 'Shey's! Where she left them after smoking one of her
peculiar cigarettes."
"Cut the chatter and just light the lamp."
Lutz lit it and turned. "My! You 're looking rather scruffy, old
fellow. Been for a stroll in the woods, I guess."
"Shut up, Lutz, and pour me a drink. And no more for yourself."
Lutz poured him a drink, sloshing out some on the carpet. Abbott
waited until Lutz had sprawled on a sofa before he drank. When he
finished he came and sat before Lutz. " Now, I want to know just what
the hell you think you're doing."
"What?-no peck on the cheek for me after your gambol in the
woods? "
Abbott came right up and, turning his head at an angle, opened
the huge jaws of his dog's head. Staring at Lutz through those
convincing yellow eyes, he closed the jaws on Lutz's knee.
"Now that's a bit much. " Lutz reached down
to
push him away,
but he tightened his jaws. "Stop, Abbott. Stop!"
