Books › Blue Book v026 n04 [1918-02], 1918 › scan 4
Scan 4
Blue Book v026 n04 [1918-02], 1918
24 lines. Read by computer on 17 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1Garnet Brice had accumulated much wisdom during his thirty years. Among other things, he had learned a great deal about women. He believed he could distinguish between those who meant a flirtation to be harmless and those who sought the other kind. He had appraised Mrs. Dassler as a frivolous young woman with no real evil in her—and he had appraised her correctly. Foolish she might be, but not at all bad.
3Brice had never seen Mr. Dassler. He understood, rather vaguely, that he was nearly twice as old as Mrs. Dassler, prosperous without possessing really great wealth, and entirely engrossed in his business, which kept him away from home a great deal of the time. Far from blaming Mrs. Dassler for seeking relaxation during his absences in coquettish adventures. Brice thought he saw that the reason for her little affairs lay in ennui and something akin to loneliness. Brice was not at all averse to helping make her loneliness more bearable, and he had plunged into one of those violent flirtations which begin nowhere in particular, are probably fated to end nowhere in particular and mean nothing at all.
5THIS was the first time he had called at her home. He observed the house with a commending eye. It was a wide, deep building of the "bungalow" pattern, only one story high, although covering much more ground than most city bungalows. It faced north on a hillside that sloped sharply away to the south, so that the floor, which was barely above the level of the lawn at the front, was at the back a dozen feet or more above the ground. He did not notice all these things at once; observation of this peculiarity of location came afterward.
7"Good evening! Come in. Delighted to see you!" Mrs. Dassler said. As he made his salutations and almost before she had finished shaking hands, she commented on the oppressive heat of the evening. "There aren't any cool spots on this side of the house," she said. "Let's go to the outside sitting-room; there's always a breeze there. It is on the southeast corner, of course."
9As she had omitted to take his hat or to mention it, he carried it with him across a wide living-room into a hall and past doors opening into various rooms. They came out at the back of the house into a screened porch, furnished and lighted in a manner indicating that it was generally used as an evening living-room.
11She noticed, as she indicated a chair and asked him to sit, that he still carried his hat.
13"Why, how stupid of me!" she said, and relieved him of it, putting it on a table. He observed then, with some surprise, that she seemed a trifle embarrassed. "The servants," she added, "—they are both away. Darkies cannot be expected to stay in the house on Juneteenth." She paused a bare second—then went on: "I had forgotten."
15Brice, not dependent upon colored domestic servants, also had not remembered that it was June nineteenth, which is Emancipation Day in Texas, the one day which every negro expects to have more or less to himself. He instantly saw the point. He also appreciated the cause of Mrs. Dassler's embarrassment. She found herself quite alone in the house with him, a contingency that had not occurred to her when she invited him.
17He rose and spoke frankly. "Really," he said, "I am sorry. Perhaps it might be just as well if I made this call some other evening. It will be quite all right, really."
19Mrs. Dassler laughed, not entirely at her ease but endeavoring to be. "Nonsense!" she exclaimed. "I certainly shall not let you run away the moment you have arrived. We can chaperon ourselves, I should think. Sit down again; there is no reason for you to hurry. Don't."
21This was the lady's affair, and he resumed his seat, quite satisfied if she was. They talked for ten or fifteen minutes—conversation of no significance whatever. The dialogue had a sudden interruption when Mrs. Dassler turned her head, listening, and said nervously:
23"That automobile stopped in front of this house. I wonder who it can be. Excuse me a moment, please."
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