The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1940-08-23

distinctively homely like Julia,
whose strange, salty ugliness kept
you looking until you grew con-
fused and assessed it as beauty.
Sandra's dark eyes were little
small, her straight brown hair
that she wore parted in the mid
die and pinned up with almost
Puritan severity, grew little too
low on her forehead. | could see
all this, even though she was
wearing a hat, for the hat was
one of those affairs milliners as
sure you you are amusing" when
they perch them on top of your
defenSeless head.
For the rest, Sandra's7 skin was
clear, her face nicely shaped; and
she was slender and small boned.
She might so easily have been
beautiful that it was a little puz-
cling to decide why she wasn't.
And then | looked at those sur
rounding men and realized that
| was trying to use arithmetic
to solve a problem that contained
an unknown. For if she had no
beauty she had something in
finitely more to be desired. Some
thing that people have been try.
ing for years to label. >.
The Lake
"I'M GOING in the lake." Julia
l said abruptly. want to
Gomez"
l glanced around at her, saw
an appeal in her eyes. and
nodded
Come in with me while |
change. Have you had dinner?"
"Ill pick up something later"
she said indifferently.
No one seemed to notice Our
departure.
She prowled restlessiy about
my two rooms while | ont on
swimming suit.
Mimi supervised the decora-
ton of these guest rooms last
spring" she confded, and | had
the impression that she was try
| ing to divert herself rather than
me with the impersonal subject.
"Not bad, are they?"
Better than that. They're SEN
sible as well as attractive and
that's nothing short of genius in
the field of decoration. Even the
beds are comfortable
well. she didn't actually
choose the furniture-the ON.
furnishes that. guess the bache-
lors have about the same. But
they don't rate curtains and
draperies and rugs-they're sup
posed to buy their own"
Mimi had done well. There
were scatter rugs or the floor of
the sitting room and a dL.st-coI-
ored broadloom in the bedroom.
The tailored curtains were thick
enough to insure privacy from
the nearby street, and side
draperies of a small-patterned
green chintZ saved it from the
institution look that bare painted
walls and heavy furniture give
to rooms. The bedspreads were
of the same green chintZ, and so
were the slip covers for the'Studio
couch and the one easy chair in
the sitting room. There were
even reading lamps and cushions.
The only change l had made
was to move a table to the front
window of the sitting room and
install on it my typewriter and
/ a litter Of manuscripts.
"Wish l could move over mere,
! said Julia with sudden passion.
her attempted diversion having
led her, as is so often the case,
back to the sore subject she had
tried to avoid. Can you imagine
what it will be like in that house
| for the next month";"
Park here any time you ike,
told her. Il work from break
fast until lunch, but if you dent
talk you won't bother me-"
Thanks" She had paused by
my typewriter. was staring
moodily at the stack OF yellow
| paper beside it. You're lucky
that you can work anywhere.
You're lucky that you can work.
can't do anything. =. How
long are you going to be here?"
THAT depends. I've loaned my
apartment until the first of Sep
TENDER. l could 60 back and stay
with a friend, but-well, there's
nothing to take me back, and
you know Chicago in the sum-
mertime."
why do you live there?"
mo reason, any more. My kid
sister was studying music there,
but she won a scholarship and
she's in New York now with her
sponsors getting ready to &C
| abroad"
''Is she your whole family?"
"All but Dad. He's a professor
at a small college. I'll probably
/ go back there eventually. but its
pretty dull"
/ | walked with her to the COM
handing officers quarters at the
east end of the quadrangle and
waited on the veranda while she
changed. Then we went down 10
eS1ake. The others were still at
the club, and | thought Of them
with the virtuouS Scorn of those
who take even the nildest exer-
else for those who do not
The officers beach was deserted
at this hour. We swan out TO the
float and pulled ourselves up on
it and lay still. watching the
shadows Of trees reach out over
the water toward US. away from
the fiery sun at their backs Here
the sounds of the post were a
memory, overlaid by the gentle
Tipping Of the lake against the
! float.
Julia said, 'Fll ask questions
and you answer the ones you
want to. O.K.?"
OK" ! said, and laughed
without reason exceDt that the