The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-04-10
: Todau's Short Story
DRINK TO NE ONLY
By Charles McGuirk


mantle possibilities because she has
all the things that a woman can
bring into romance. She is beauti-
full and shapely in dark, Juno
esque way. She Is good and
sympathetic listener. And what
more can man ask Of any woman?
But when you've known Eve a
while and, maybe, made some sug-
gestions along those lines, you find
out that Eve is not interested in
romance. More than that, she wants
no pars Of it.
Then you'll realize that your first
impressions were all wrong and
you'll wonder how you ever got the
idea that there was anything ro-
mantle about her in the first place.
But, If Eve approves of you and
takes you into her very infrequent
confidence, you will learn that your
first impressions were absolutely
correct, though not in this phase
VI IlcE ll1C.
She is, she'll tell you firmly,
through with love, or any part of 1t.
She tells it simply but with a sin
cerity which you can't doubt.
1--WE is one of those earnest, bust
n nesslike drinkers who have
evolved among modern women since
the advent of repeal. You will find
them at the fashionable bars from
cocktail hour until it is time to
dress for dinner. u
At dinner, they start with cock
tail and end with liqueur and
after the theater they step into the
night clubs and dance and gossip
while they sip drink for drink with
their escorts. And, If the escorts
aren't careful, they see that they are
safely carried home before they feel
at liberty to go home themselves.
Eve has very comfortable in
come Of her own, which may or
may not be good thing for her,
because it eliminates any necessity
of doing anything but what she
pleases. There are many things she
could be If she wanted to.
She is a better than good pianist.
She studied ballet for II years. Her
letter writing betrays the embryo
author who needs only the drive of
ambition to bring her, at least, into
the magazines.
And then, she has her looks, her
family and her money. She could
marry almost any man she chose.
But she doesn't want to marry.
She plays the piano only when she
is sad. She is crowding 80 and
dancing is to strenuous. The things
she likes to do most is to discuss
Ben Jonson, that swash~buckling
contemporary of Will Shakespeare,
who saw the Sixteenth Century out
and the Seventeenth Century in
through the bottom of a glass, and
to drink in that earnest business
like way of hers.
A MAN who will here be called
4 n Bill, because that is not his
name, is responsible for Ewes lack
of drive and, very probably for her
well-deflned and well-controlled
thirst.
He is also responsible for her
sincere determination to be through
with love. Bill is husband and
father. That, Eve will tell you, if
she tells you anything about the af-
fair, is what gets her down.
ITO think that l." she says, "a
sophisticated New Yorker could
have been taken in as easily and as
completely as the farmers daughter,
is the thing that makes me laugh
at myself"
And she will laugh, but the laugh
isn't a pleasant thing to hear.
She and Bill met at a cocktail
party on Park-av when cocktail
parties were against the law and
therefore the most interesting
things in the life of the younger
generation.
Eve did not care so much for
liquor then. She was in the stage
when she could take it or let it
alone, preferring most of the time,
however, not to let it alone.
The apartment was crowded and
Eve, little bored, had wandered
over to the piano. She was play
ing her favorite piece, that little
thing Ben Johnson wrote ITO Ce-
lia' three hundred years or so ago,
playing it softly and thinking about
the man who wrote it and whether
he really did love Celia or was just
writing himself out of hang over.
She knew enough about him ia
know that the latter was very pos
sible.
GO she played it with great deal
~ of feeling. She played it to the
end. And then she just sat there,
thinking the music and wonder
ing where the tune had come from
because the tune had not always
been with the verse.
She had known the song years
before she had learned that the
words had not originally been
written to the music.
So she began to play 1t again,
softer than usual. And then over
her shoulder a mans voice picked
it up, baritone voice, singing it
as softly as she played.
Drink to me only with thine eyes
he sang)
"And 1 will pledge with mine;
Or leave a kiss but in the cup,
And I'll not look for wine.
And thirst that from the soul
doth rise