Irwin Shaw - Short Stories - Five Decades

“You’re too young to talk like that,” Mr. Clay said, disliking the fact that she had called him Pop, disliking her thinking that he went often to the Stork Club. “A twenty-year-old girl should …”

The owner of the place, a beautifully dressed, pink-faced man of forty who looked like a boy, was standing beside their table, smiling, having come out from behind the bar, where at dinner-time he mixed the drinks scrupulously himself.

“Hello, Mr. Trent,” Margaret said. “This is my father. He likes your place.”

“Thank you,” Trent said, bowing a little, smiling like a little boy. “I’m pleased.”

“It has a very pleasant atmosphere,” Mr. Clay said.

“Mr. Trent has a specialty,” Margaret said. “He makes it with rum.”

“Rum, lime juice, sugar, a little Cointreau in the bottom of the glass.” Trent waved his hands delicately as he spoke.

“It comes out foamy,” Margaret said. “It’s nice on the teeth.”

“I’m making it now with black Jamaica rum,” Trent said. “Myers’ rum, it’s heavier, for the autumn. I make it on the electric mixer. It gives it a nice quality.”

“Two,” said Mr. Clay, wishing he had the courage to order a Martini.

The six people at the bar were singing now. “The old gray mare,” they sang, loudly, consciously having a good time, consciously being gay and lively, and yet singing with a slight touch of burlesque, so that anybody could see these were no yokels. “The old gray mare,” they sang, “she ain’t what she used to be, Oh, she ain’t what she used to be …”

Margaret watched them, grouped at the bar, their heads together—a cluster of men’s middle-aged sparse gray hair, neatly brushed; and carefully curled and elaborately arranged coiffures on the women that in this light, at least, had a last, desperate look of youth. The woman who had toasted Chamberlain had been here once before when Margaret had come for dinner. Mrs. Taylor, Trent had called her, and she’d been in with a man other than her husband, whose hand she was holding now. Margaret had noticed her quick look around the room before she seated herself, her tiny adjustment of her corset, betraying the fact that the achievement of that trim and almost elegant figure came only as a.result of engineering and torture under the smart silk print dress. A man they called Oliver, who looked slightly older than the others, somehow more confident and breezy, as though he had more money in the bank than any of his friends, led the singing with elaborate gestures of his hands, like a burlesque of Stokowski. Mr. Taylor was the least noisy of the three men. He wheezed a little and drank sparingly. Margaret was sure he had a bad stomach and was already looking sorrowfully ahead to the aspirin and Alka-Seltzer the next morning. The third man was fat, and his scalp bloomed through his hair and he had a piped vest, which made him look like a businessman in the movies, except that when he wasn’t singing his face looked intelligent and very cold. The other two women were standard suburban mothers nearing fifty, forlornly carrying on their battle against age, loneliness, and death with powder, rouge, rejuvenating cream, accustomed now to neglect from their husbands and children, full of mild, half-formed regrets for their lives as they drove behind their middle-aged chauffeurs down to New York in the late mornings for lunch and shopping.

“What does that sign say?” Mr. Clay said loudly, over the noise of the singing. He was peering out the window at the large sign on the lawn with the name of the inn on it.

“‘Free conscience, void of offence, 1840,’” Margaret said.

“That’s a queer thing to have on a sign advertising a restaurant,” Mr. Clay said.

Trent had come to their table with the drinks. “It came with the place,” he apologized. “I didn’t have the heart to take it down.”

“There’s nothing wrong with it,” Mr. Clay said quickly, hoping he hadn’t hurt Trent’s feelings. “It’s an admirable sentiment.” He tasted the drink. “Wonderful!” he said loudly, over the singing, to make Trent feel better. “Absolutely wonderful!”

Trent smiled and went back to the bar, where his six customers were calling for more drinks.

Mr. Clay settled back in his chair, savoring his drink, expecting a good dinner. “Now, tell me,” he said, “why you dragged me up here.”

Margaret played reflectively with her glass. “I wanted to ask your advice,” she said.

Mr. Clay sat forward and stared intently at his daughter. Usually when girls that age asked advice in that sober, reflective tone, it was on only one subject. Margaret noticed him leaning forward, staring at her, his handsome gray eyes now full of worry and suspicion.

“What’s the matter?” Margaret asked. “What’re you looking so scared about?”

“You can tell me everything,” Mr. Clay said, wishing she wouldn’t.

“Oh!” Margaret said. “Please sit back. The patient isn’t dying. All I brought you up here for was to tell you I wanted to quit school. Now, take that look out of your eyes.” She laughed, but her laugh was nervous, and over her glass she eyed her father, who ran a great business and paid a huge income tax each year to the government.

“I didn’t have any look in my eyes,” Mr. Clay said, laughing, deciding instantly that that was the way to handle it—gently, with an easy laugh, pretending that it was all light and cheerful, that he was a good fellow, practically her own age, that he understood everything. “Who’s the boy?”

“It isn’t any boy.”

“Now, Margaret,” he said lightly, “your father’s been around …”

“I know my father’s been around,” Margaret said. “The headwaiters’ delight.” Mr. Clay looked hurt, his eyes narrowing, his mouth falling into the straight line Margaret remembered, and she spoke hurriedly. “I don’t mind it,” she said. “In fact, I like it. It makes me feel I come from durable yet light-footed stock. Every time I see your picture with one of those girls in a mink coat, I feel proud. Honest.”

“What I meant to say,” Mr. Clay said coldly, “was that you could tell me the truth.”

“There isn’t any boy.”

“To my daughter!” Mrs. Taylor said loudly, her glass held high. “This is an anniversary. A year ago I gave my pure and beautiful daughter away in marriage. Now I’m a grandmother. To my daughter!”

“To the grandmother!” said Oliver, the one who spoke the loudest and oftenest and with the most assurance. “To the poor, broken-down, pure, and beautiful old grandmother!”

All the people at the bar laughed, as though this was a wonderful joke, and Oliver slapped Mrs. Taylor heartily on the back. “Now, Oliver,” she said mildly, wriggling her back.

“I just want to quit school,” Margaret said, scowling a little at the people making so much noise at the bar. “It bores me.”

“It’s the best school for women in the country,” Mr. Clay said. “And you’ve done very well. And you’ve only got two more years to go.”

“It bores me.”

“I’ve always thought,” Mr. Clay said carefully, “that a good school was the best place for a young and unsettled girl to spend four very important years of her life.”

“I’m in abeyance in school,” Margaret said. “My whole life’s in abeyance. Everything’s happening outside and nothing’s happening inside. A girls’ school is a continual Junior League ball!”

“It seems to me there’re a couple of classes to be attended,” Mr. Clay said with heavy irony. “Or so I’ve heard.”

“Remote, remote,” Margaret said dreamily. “Anglo-Saxon literature. The development of the novel. The nervous system of the worm. You look at the front page of one newspaper, you listen to one conversation in the subway in New York, when you go in on a week-end, you see one play, and your mind begins to itch because you’re stuck in that organdie-and-douche-bag nunnery.”