JOYCE CAROL OATES
583
You liked the soldiers and wanted to think ... yes, badly
wanted to think ... they liked you.
• •
•
Though doomed, the evening begins successfully.
There are nine of them around the table- Cecilia, and Philip,
and an information officer from the Consulate named Margot (a
German-born American woman, Cecilia's age), and six Germans
(five men, one woman) who are writers, and/or are involved in
American studies at the University. To disguise her sickly pallor and
the discoloration on the right side of her face Cecilia applied pancake
make-up hurriedly purchased in the hotel's drugstore- Cecilia, who
never wears make-up, who has always thought the practice barbaric–
and the result is surprisingly good , judging from the others' re–
sponses. (Philip has said very little. Philip is going to say very little
to her throughout the evening.)
Yes, the German gentlemen behave gallantly to Cecilia, even
rather flirtatiously . Perhaps they sense her new, raw vulnerability–
perhaps there is something appealing about her porcelain face , her
moist red lips. August who is a philologist and lover of poetry, Hans
who teaches English, Heinrich who has translated Melville, Whit–
man, Emily Dickinson ... and fiery young Rudolph who will
shortly publish his first novel . . . and even the most distinguished
member of the German contingent, the whitechaired professor of
American history Dr. Fritz Eisenach . . . all appear to be quite
taken with Miss Heath of the Peekskill Foundation . Dr. Eisenach
addresses her so that all the table can hear, querying her on nine–
teenth-century American art, in which he claims an interest of many
years-for such "supreme" figures as George Fuller and John La
Farge. As it happens Cecilia is the author of a monograph on Fuller,
published when she was still in graduate school in New Haven; and
her main project at Peekskill is to do a study of La Farge whom she
has long considered an important painter ... indeed, it is Cecilia
Heath's professional goal to raise La Farge from his respectable ob–
scurity and establish him as a major American artist. So her replies
delight Dr. Eisenach, and for some heady minutes Cecilia finds
herself the center of attention.
Philip smiles in her direction, sucking at his pipe, saying
nothing. When asked about La Farge he professes innocence: he in–
tends to wait, he says, for Cecilia's book.
They talk variously of American art, German art, the journals
