A KISS FOR AMORY

His lip curled when he read it.

"I am going to have a bobbing party," it said, "on Thursday,

December the seventeenth, at five o'clock, and I would like it

very much if you could come.

Yours truly,

R.S.V.P. Myra St. Claire.

He had been two months in Minneapolis, and his chief struggle had been

the concealing from "the other guys at school" how particularly superior

he felt himself to be, yet this conviction was built upon shifting

sands. He had shown off one day in French class (he was in senior French

class) to the utter confusion of Mr. Reardon, whose accent Amory damned

contemptuously, and to the delight of the class. Mr. Reardon, who had

spent several weeks in Paris ten years before, took his revenge on the

verbs, whenever he had his book open. But another time Amory showed off

in history class, with quite disastrous results, for the boys there

were his own age, and they shrilled innuendoes at each other all the

following week:

"Aw--I b'lieve, doncherknow, the Umuricun revolution was _lawgely_ an

affair of the middul _clawses_," or

"Washington came of very good blood--aw, quite good--I b'lieve."

Amory ingeniously tried to retrieve himself by blundering on purpose.

Two years before he had commenced a history of the United States which,

though it only got as far as the Colonial Wars, had been pronounced by

his mother completely enchanting.

His chief disadvantage lay in athletics, but as soon as he discovered

that it was the touchstone of power and popularity at school, he began

to make furious, persistent efforts to excel in the winter sports, and

with his ankles aching and bending in spite of his efforts, he skated

valiantly around the Lorelie rink every afternoon, wondering how soon

he would be able to carry a hockey-stick without getting it inexplicably

tangled in his skates.

The invitation to Miss Myra St. Claire's bobbing party spent the morning

in his coat pocket, where it had an intense physical affair with a dusty

piece of peanut brittle. During the afternoon he brought it to light

with a sigh, and after some consideration and a preliminary draft in the

back of Collar and Daniel's "First-Year Latin," composed an answer:

My dear Miss St. Claire:

Your truly charming envitation for the evening of next Thursday

evening was truly delightful to receive this morning. I will be

charm and inchanted indeed to present my compliments on next

Thursday evening.

Faithfully,

Amory Blaine.

*****

On Thursday, therefore, he walked pensively along the slippery,

shovel-scraped sidewalks, and came in sight of Myra's house, on the

half-hour after five, a lateness which he fancied his mother would

have favored. He waited on the door-step with his eyes nonchalantly

half-closed, and planned his entrance with precision. He would cross

the floor, not too hastily, to Mrs. St. Claire, and say with exactly the

correct modulation:

"My _dear_ Mrs. St. Claire, I'm _frightfully_ sorry to be late, but my

maid"--he paused there and realized he would be quoting--"but my uncle

and I had to see a fella--Yes, I've met your enchanting daughter at

dancing-school."

Then he would shake hands, using that slight, half-foreign bow, with all

the starchy little females, and nod to the fellas who would be standing

'round, paralyzed into rigid groups for mutual protection.

A butler (one of the three in Minneapolis) swung open the door. Amory

stepped inside and divested himself of cap and coat. He was mildly

surprised not to hear the shrill squawk of conversation from the next

room, and he decided it must be quite formal. He approved of that--as he

approved of the butler.

"Miss Myra," he said.

To his surprise the butler grinned horribly.

"Oh, yeah," he declared, "she's here." He was unaware that his failure

to be cockney was ruining his standing. Amory considered him coldly.

"But," continued the butler, his voice rising unnecessarily, "she's the

only one what _is_ here. The party's gone."

Amory gasped in sudden horror.

"What?"

"She's been waitin' for Amory Blaine. That's you, ain't it? Her mother

says that if you showed up by five-thirty you two was to go after 'em in

the Packard."

Amory's despair was crystallized by the appearance of Myra herself,

bundled to the ears in a polo coat, her face plainly sulky, her voice

pleasant only with difficulty.

"'Lo, Amory."

"'Lo, Myra." He had described the state of his vitality.

"Well--you _got_ here, _any_ways."

"Well--I'll tell you. I guess you don't know about the auto accident,"

he romanced.

Myra's eyes opened wide.

"Who was it to?"

"Well," he continued desperately, "uncle 'n aunt 'n I."

"Was any one _killed?_"

Amory paused and then nodded.

"Your uncle?"--alarm.

"Oh, no just a horse--a sorta gray horse."

At this point the Erse butler snickered.

"Probably killed the engine," he suggested. Amory would have put him on

the rack without a scruple.

"We'll go now," said Myra coolly. "You see, Amory, the bobs were ordered

for five and everybody was here, so we couldn't wait--"

"Well, I couldn't help it, could I?"

"So mama said for me to wait till ha'past five. We'll catch the bobs

before it gets to the Minnehaha Club, Amory."

Amory's shredded poise dropped from him. He pictured the happy party

jingling along snowy streets, the appearance of the limousine, the

horrible public descent of him and Myra before sixty reproachful eyes,

his apology--a real one this time. He sighed aloud.

"What?" inquired Myra.

"Nothing. I was just yawning. Are we going to _surely_ catch up with 'em

before they get there?" He was encouraging a faint hope that they might

slip into the Minnehaha Club and meet the others there, be found in

blasй seclusion before the fire and quite regain his lost attitude.

"Oh, sure Mike, we'll catch 'em all right--let's hurry."

He became conscious of his stomach. As they stepped into the machine he

hurriedly slapped the paint of diplomacy over a rather box-like plan

he had conceived. It was based upon some "trade-lasts" gleaned at

dancing-school, to the effect that he was "awful good-looking and

_English_, sort of."

"Myra," he said, lowering his voice and choosing his words carefully,

"I beg a thousand pardons. Can you ever forgive me?" She regarded

him gravely, his intent green eyes, his mouth, that to her

thirteen-year-old, arrow-collar taste was the quintessence of romance.

Yes, Myra could forgive him very easily.

"Why--yes--sure."

He looked at her again, and then dropped his eyes. He had lashes.

"I'm awful," he said sadly. "I'm diff'runt. I don't know why I make faux

pas. 'Cause I don't care, I s'pose." Then, recklessly: "I been smoking

too much. I've got t'bacca heart."

Myra pictured an all-night tobacco debauch, with Amory pale and reeling

from the effect of nicotined lungs. She gave a little gasp.

"Oh, _Amory_, don't smoke. You'll stunt your _growth!_"

"I don't care," he persisted gloomily. "I gotta. I got the habit. I've

done a lot of things that if my fambly knew"--he hesitated, giving her

imagination time to picture dark horrors--"I went to the burlesque show

last week."

Myra was quite overcome. He turned the green eyes on her again. "You're

the only girl in town I like much," he exclaimed in a rush of sentiment.

"You're simpatico."

Myra was not sure that she was, but it sounded stylish though vaguely

improper.

Thick dusk had descended outside, and as the limousine made a sudden

turn she was jolted against him; their hands touched.

"You shouldn't smoke, Amory," she whispered. "Don't you know that?"

He shook his head.

"Nobody cares."

Myra hesitated.

"_I_ care."

Something stirred within Amory.

"Oh, yes, you do! You got a crush on Froggy Parker. I guess everybody

knows that."

"No, I haven't," very slowly.

A silence, while Amory thrilled. There was something fascinating about

Myra, shut away here cosily from the dim, chill air. Myra, a little

bundle of clothes, with strands of yellow hair curling out from under

her skating cap.

"Because I've got a crush, too--" He paused, for he heard in the

distance the sound of young laughter, and, peering through the frosted

glass along the lamp-lit street, he made out the dark outline of the

bobbing party. He must act quickly. He reached over with a violent,

jerky effort, and clutched Myra's hand--her thumb, to be exact.

"Tell him to go to the Minnehaha straight," he whispered. "I wanta talk

to you--I _got_ to talk to you."

Myra made out the party ahead, had an instant vision of her mother, and

then--alas for convention--glanced into the eyes beside. "Turn down this

side street, Richard, and drive straight to the Minnehaha Club!" she

cried through the speaking tube. Amory sank back against the cushions

with a sigh of relief.

"I can kiss her," he thought. "I'll bet I can. I'll _bet_ I can!"

Overhead the sky was half crystalline, half misty, and the night around

was chill and vibrant with rich tension. From the Country Club steps the

roads stretched away, dark creases on the white blanket; huge heaps of

snow lining the sides like the tracks of giant moles. They lingered for

a moment on the steps, and watched the white holiday moon.

"Pale moons like that one"--Amory made a vague gesture--"make people

mysterieuse. You look like a young witch with her cap off and her hair

sorta mussed"--her hands clutched at her hair--"Oh, leave it, it looks

_good_."

They drifted up the stairs and Myra led the way into the little den of

his dreams, where a cosy fire was burning before a big sink-down couch.

A few years later this was to be a great stage for Amory, a cradle for

many an emotional crisis. Now they talked for a moment about bobbing

parties.

"There's always a bunch of shy fellas," he commented, "sitting at the

tail of the bob, sorta lurkin' an' whisperin' an' pushin' each other

off. Then there's always some crazy cross-eyed girl"--he gave a

terrifying imitation--"she's always talkin' _hard_, sorta, to the

chaperon."

"You're such a funny boy," puzzled Myra.

"How d'y' mean?" Amory gave immediate attention, on his own ground at

last.

"Oh--always talking about crazy things. Why don't you come ski-ing with

Marylyn and I to-morrow?"

"I don't like girls in the daytime," he said shortly, and then, thinking

this a bit abrupt, he added: "But I like you." He cleared his throat. "I

like you first and second and third."

Myra's eyes became dreamy. What a story this would make to tell

Marylyn! Here on the couch with this _wonderful_-looking boy--the little

fire--the sense that they were alone in the great building--

Myra capitulated. The atmosphere was too appropriate.

"I like you the first twenty-five," she confessed, her voice trembling,

"and Froggy Parker twenty-sixth."

Froggy had fallen twenty-five places in one hour. As yet he had not even

noticed it.

But Amory, being on the spot, leaned over quickly and kissed Myra's

cheek. He had never kissed a girl before, and he tasted his lips

curiously, as if he had munched some new fruit. Then their lips brushed

like young wild flowers in the wind.

"We're awful," rejoiced Myra gently. She slipped her hand into his,

her head drooped against his shoulder. Sudden revulsion seized Amory,

disgust, loathing for the whole incident. He desired frantically to

be away, never to see Myra again, never to kiss any one; he became

conscious of his face and hers, of their clinging hands, and he wanted

to creep out of his body and hide somewhere safe out of sight, up in the

corner of his mind.

"Kiss me again." Her voice came out of a great void.

"I don't want to," he heard himself saying. There was another pause.

"I don't want to!" he repeated passionately.

Myra sprang up, her cheeks pink with bruised vanity, the great bow on

the back of her head trembling sympathetically.

"I hate you!" she cried. "Don't you ever dare to speak to me again!"

"What?" stammered Amory.

"I'll tell mama you kissed me! I will too! I will too! I'll tell mama,

and she won't let me play with you!"

Amory rose and stared at her helplessly, as though she were a new animal

of whose presence on the earth he had not heretofore been aware.

The door opened suddenly, and Myra's mother appeared on the threshold,

fumbling with her lorgnette.

"Well," she began, adjusting it benignantly, "the man at the desk told

me you two children were up here--How do you do, Amory."

Amory watched Myra and waited for the crash--but none came. The pout

faded, the high pink subsided, and Myra's voice was placid as a summer

lake when she answered her mother.

"Oh, we started so late, mama, that I thought we might as well--"

He heard from below the shrieks of laughter, and smelled the vapid

odor of hot chocolate and tea-cakes as he silently followed mother and

daughter down-stairs. The sound of the graphophone mingled with the

voices of many girls humming the air, and a faint glow was born and

spread over him:

"Casey-Jones--mounted to the cab-un

Casey-Jones--'th his orders in his hand.

Casey-Jones--mounted to the cab-un

Took his farewell journey to the prom-ised land."

*****

Date: 2015-02-16; view: 784