Two Serious Ladies

by Jane Bowles

  "Perfectly," said Miss Goering, who was naturally delighted that they were leaving the apartment.

  The restaurant was not very gay. It was in a large square room on the first floor of an old house. Ben led her to a table near the wall and told her to sit down.

  "Every now and then you can order something," he said, and went over to three men who were standing at a makeshift bar improvised of thin strips of wood and papier-mâché.

  The guests were nearly all men, and Miss Goering noticed that there were no distinguished faces among them, although not one of them was shabbily dressed. The three men to whom Ben was talking were ugly and even brutal-looking. Presently she saw Ben make a sign to a woman who was seated not far from her own table. She went and spoke to him and then walked quickly over to Miss Goering's table.

  "He wants you to know he's going to be here a long time, maybe over two hours. I am supposed to get you what you want. Would you like some spaghetti or a sandwich? I'll get you whichever you want."

  "No, thank you," said Miss Goering. "But won't you sit down and have a drink with me?"

  "To tell you the truth, I won't," said the woman, "although I thank you very much." She hesitated a moment before saying good-by, "Of course, I would like to have you come over to our table and join us, but the situation is hard to explain. Most of us here are close friends, and when we see each other we tell each other everything that has happened."

  "I understand," said Miss Goering, who was rather sad to see her leave because she did not fancy sitting alone for two or three hours. Although she was not anxious to be in Ben's company, the suspense of waiting all that time with so little to distract her was almost unbearable. It occurred to her that she might possibly telephone to a friend and ask her to come and have a drink at the restaurant. "Certainly," she thought. "Ben can't object to my having a little chat with another woman," Anna and Mrs. Copperfield were the only two people she knew well enough to invite on such short notice. Of the two she preferred Mrs. Copperfield and thought her the most likely to accept such an invitation. But she was not certain that Mrs. Copperfield had returned yet from her trip through Central America. She called the waiter and requested that he take her to the phone. After asking a few questions he showed her into a drafty hall and called the number for her. She was successful in reaching her friend, who was terribly excited the moment she heard Miss Goering's voice.

  "I am flying down immediately," she said to Miss Goering. "I can't tell you how terrific it is to hear from you. I have not been back long, you know, and I don't think I'll stay,"

  Just as Mrs. Copperfield was telling her this, Ben came into the hall and snatched the receiver from Miss Goering's hand. "What's this about, for Christ's sake?" he demanded.

  Miss Goering asked Mrs. Copperfield to hold on a moment. "I am calling a woman friend," she said to Ben, "a woman whom I haven't seen in quite some time. She is a lively person and I thought she might like to come down and have a drink with me. I was growing lonely at my table."

  "Hello," Ben shouted into the phone, "are you coming down here?"

  "By all means and tout de suite," Mrs. Copperfield answered. "I adore her."

  Ben seemed satisfied and returned the receiver to Miss Goering without saying a word. Before leaving the hall, however, he announced to Miss Goering that he was not going to take on two women. She nodded and resumed her conversation with Mrs. Copperfield. She told her the address of the restaurant which the waiter had written down for her, and said good-by.

  About half an hour later Mrs. Copperfield arrived, accompanied by a woman whom Miss Goering had never seen before.

  She was dismayed at the sight of her old friend. She was terribly thin and she appeared to be suffering from a skin eruption. Mrs. Copperfield's friend was fairly attractive, Miss Goering thought, but her hair was far too wiry for her own taste. Both women were dressed expensively and in black.

  "There she is," Mrs. Copperfield screamed, grabbing Pacifica by the hand and running over to Miss Goering's table.

  "I can't tell you how delighted I am that you called," she said. "You are the one person in the world I wanted to have see me. This is Pacifica. She is with me in my apartment."

  Miss Goering asked them to sit down.

  "Listen," said Pacifica to Miss Goering, "I have a date with a boy very far uptown. It is wonderful to see you, but he will be very nervous and unhappy. She can talk to you and I'll go and see him now. You are great friends, she told me."

  Mrs. Copperfield rose to her feet. "Pacifica," she said, "you must stay here and have drinks first. This is a miracle and you must be in on it."

  "It is so late now that I will be in a damned mess if I don't go right away. She would not come here alone," Pacifica said to Miss Goering.

  "Remember, you promised to come and get me afterwards," said Mrs. Copperfield. "I will telephone you as soon as Christina is ready to leave."

  Pacifica said good-by and hurried out of the room.

  "What do you think of her?" Mrs. Copperfield asked Miss Goering, but without waiting for an answer she called for the waiter and ordered two double whiskies. "What do you think of her?" she repeated.

  "Where's she from?"

  "She is a Spanish girl from Panama, and the most wonderful character that has ever existed. We don't make a move without each other. I am completely satisfied and contented."

  "I should say, though, that you are a little run down," said Miss Goering, who was frankly worried about her friend.

  "I'll tell you," said Mrs. Copperfield, leaning over the table and suddenly looking very tense. "I am a little worried—not terribly worried, because I shan't allow anything to happen that I don't want to happen—but I am a little worried because Pacifica has met this blond boy who lives way uptown and he has asked her to marry him. He never says anything and he has a very weak character. But I think he has bewitched her because he pays her compliments all the time. I've gone up to his apartment with her, because I won't allow them to be alone, and she has cooked dinner for him twice. He's crazy for Spanish food and eats ravenously of every dish she puts in front of him."

  Mrs. Copperfield leaned back and stared intently into Miss Goering's eyes.

  "I am taking her back to Panama as soon as I am able to book passage on a boat," She ordered another double whisky. "Well, what do you think of it?" she asked eagerly.

  "Perhaps you'd better wait and see whether or not she really wants to marry him."

  "Don't be insane," said Mrs. Copperfield. "I can't live without her, not for a minute. I'd go completely to pieces."

  "But you have gone to pieces, or do I misjudge you dreadfully?"

  "True enough," said Mrs. Copperfield, bringing her fist down on the table and looking very mean. "I have gone to pieces, which is a thing I've wanted to do for years. I know I am as guilty as I can be, but I have my happiness, which I guard like a wolf, and I have authority now and a certain amount of daring, which, if you remember correctly, I never had before."

  Mrs. Copperfield was getting drunk and looking more disagreeable.

  "I remember," said Miss Goering, "that you used to be somewhat shy, but I dare say very courageous. It would take a good deal of courage to live with a man like Mr. Copperfield, whom I gather you are no longer living with. I've admired you very much indeed. I am not sure that I do now."

  "That makes no difference to me," said Mrs. Copperfield. "I feel that you have changed anyway and lost your charm. You seem stodgy to me now and less comforting. You used to be so gracious and understanding; everyone thought you were light in the head, but I thought you were extremely instinctive and gifted with magic powers," She ordered another drink and sat brooding for a moment.

  "You will contend," she continued in a very clear voice, "that all people are of equal importance, but although I love Pacifica very much, I think it is obvious that I am more important."

  Miss Goering did not feel that she had any light to argue this point with Mrs. Copperfield.

 
; "I understand how you feel," she said, "and perhaps you are right."

  "Thank God," said Mrs. Copperfield, and she took Miss Goering's hand in her own.

  "Christina," she pleaded, "please don't cross me again, I can't bear it."

  Miss Goering hoped that Mrs. Copperfield would now question her concerning her own life. She had a great desire to tell someone everything that had happened during the last year. But Mrs. Copperfield sat gulping down her drink, occasionally spilling a little of it over her chin. She was not even looking at Miss Goering and they sat for ten minutes in silence.

  "I think," said Mrs. Copperfield at last, "that I will telephone Pacifica and tell her to call for me in three quarters of an hour."

  Miss Goering showed her to the phone and returned to the table. She looked up after a moment and noticed that another man had joined Ben and his friends. When her friend returned from the telephone, Miss Goering saw immediately that something was very much the matter. Mrs. Copperfield fell into her seat.

  "She says that she does not know when she is coming down, and if she is not here by the time you feel like leaving, I am to return home with you, or all alone by myself. It's happened to me now, hasn't it? But the beauty of me is that I am only a step from desperation all the time and I am one of the few people I know who could perform an act of violence with the greatest of ease."

  She waved her hand over her head.

  "Acts of violence are generally performed with ease," said Miss Goering. She was at this point completely disgusted with Mrs. Copperfield, who rose from her seat and walked in a crooked path over to the bar. There she stood taking drink after drink without turning her little head which was almost completely hidden by the enormous fur collar on her coat.

  Miss Goering went up to Mrs. Copperfield just once, thinking that she might persuade her friend to return to the table. But Mrs. Copperfield showed a furious tear-stained face to Miss Goering and flung her arm out sideways, striking Miss Goering in the nose with her forearm. Miss Goering returned to her seat and sat nursing her nose.

  To her great surprise, about twenty minutes later Pacifica arrived, accompanied by her young man. She introduced him to Miss Goering and then hurried over to the bar. The young man stood with his hands in his pockets and looked around him rather awkwardly.

  "Sit down," said Miss Goering. "I thought that Pacifica was not coming."

  "She was not coming," he answered very slowly, "but then she decided that she would come because she was worried that her friend would be upset."

  "Mrs. Copperfield is a highly strung woman, I am afraid," said Miss Goering.

  "I don't know her very well," he answered discreetly.

  Pacifica returned from the bar with Mrs. Copperfield, who was now terribly gay and wanted to order drinks for everyone. But neither the boy nor Pacifica would accept her offer. The boy looked very sad and soon excused himself, saying that he had only intended to see Pacifica to the restaurant and then return to his home. Mrs. Copperfield decided to accompany him to the door, patting his hand all the way and stumbling so badly that he was obliged to slip his arm around her waist to keep her from falling. Pacifica, meanwhile, leaned over to Miss Goering.

  "It is terrible," she said. "What a baby your friend is! I can't leave her for ten minutes because it almost breaks her heart, and she is such a kind and generous woman, with such a beautiful apartment and such beautiful clothes. What can I do with her? She is like a little baby. I tried to explain it to my young man, but I can't explain it really to anyone."

  Mrs. Copperfield returned and suggested that they all go elsewhere to get some food.

  "I can't," said Miss Goering, lowering her eyes. "I have an appointment with a gentleman." She would have liked to talk to Pacifica a little longer. In some ways Pacifica reminded her of Miss Gamelon although certainly Pacifica was a much nicer person and more attractive physically. At this moment she noticed that Ben and his friends were putting on their coats and getting ready to leave. She hesitated only a second and then hurriedly said good-by to Pacifica and Mrs. Copperfield. She was just drawing her wrap over her shoulders when, to her surprise, she saw the four men walk very rapidly towards the door, right past her table. Ben made no sign to her.

  "He must be coming back," she thought, but she decided to go into the hall. They were not in the hall, so she opened the door and stood on the stoop. From there she saw them all get into Ben's black car. Ben was the last one to get in, and just as he stepped on the running board, he turned his head around and saw Miss Goering.

  "Hey," he said, "I forgot about you. I've got to go big distances on some important business. I don't know when I'll be back. Good-by."

  He slammed the door behind him and they drove off. Miss Goering began to descend the stone steps. The long staircase seemed short to her, like a dream that is remembered long after it has been dreamed.

  She stood on the street and waited to be overcome with joy and relief. But soon she was aware of a new sadness within herself. Hope, she felt, had discarded a childish form forever.

  "Certainly I am nearer to becoming a saint," reflected Miss Goering, "but is it possible that a part of me hidden from my sight is piling sin upon sin as fast as Mrs. Copperfield?" This latter possibility Miss Goering thought to be of considerable interest but of no great importance.