‘Don’t kid me.’
We turned off the Avenue up the Rue des Pyramides, through the traffic of the Rue de Rivoli, and through a dark gate into the Tuileries. She cuddled against me and I put my arm around her. She looked up to be kissed. She touched me with one hand and I put her hand away.
‘Never mind.’
‘What’s the matter? You sick?’
‘Yes.’
‘Everybody’s sick. I’m sick, too.’
We came out of the Tuileries into the light and crossed the Seine and then turned up the Rue des Saints Pères.
‘You oughtn’t to drink pernod if you’re sick.’
‘You neither.’
‘It doesn’t make any difference with me. It doesn’t make any difference with a woman.’
‘What are you called?’
‘Georgette. How are you called?’
‘Jacob.’
‘That’s a Flemish name.’
‘American too.’
‘You’re not Flamand?’
‘No, American.’
‘Good, I detest Flamands.’
By this time we were at the restaurant. I called to the cocher to stop. We got out and Georgette did not like the looks of the place. ‘This is no great thing of a restaurant.’
‘No,’ I said. ‘Maybe you would rather go to Foyot’s. Why don’t you keep the cab and go on?’
I had picked her up because of a vague sentimental idea that it would be nice to eat with someone. It was a long time since I had dined with a poule, and I had forgotten how dull it could be. We went into the restaurant, passed Madame Lavigne at the desk and into a little room. Georgette cheered up a little under the food.
‘It isn’t bad here,’ she said. ‘It isn’t chic, but the food is all right.’
‘Better than you eat in Liège.’
‘Brussels, you mean.’
We had another bottle of wine and Georgette made a joke. She smiled and showed all her bad teeth, and we touched glasses. ‘You’re not a bad type,’ she said. ‘It’s a shame you’re sick. We get on well. What’s the matter with you, anyway?’
‘I got hurt in the war,’ I said.
‘Oh, that dirty war.’
We would probably have gone on and discussed the war and agreed that it was in reality a calamity for civilization, and perhaps would have been better avoided. I was bored enough. Just then from the other room someone called: ‘Barnes! I say, Barnes! Jacob Barnes!’
‘It’s a friend calling me,’ I explained, and went out.
There was Braddocks at a big table with a party: Cohn, Frances Clyne, Mrs. Braddocks, several people I did not know.
‘You’re coming to the dance, aren’t you?’ Braddocks asked.
‘What dance?’
‘Why, the dancings. Don’t you know we’ve revived them?’ Mrs. Braddocks put in.
‘You must come, Jake. We’re all going,’ Frances said from the end of the table. She was tall and had a smile.
‘Of course, he’s coming,’ Braddocks said. ‘Come in and have coffee with us, Barnes.’
‘Right.’
‘And bring your friend,’ said Mrs. Braddocks laughing. She was a Canadian and had all their easy social graces.
‘Thanks, we’ll be in,’ I said. I went back to the small room.
‘Who are your friends?’ Georgette asked.
‘Writers and artists.’
‘There are lots of those on this side of the river.’
‘Too many.’
‘I think so. Still, some of them make money.’
‘Oh, yes.’
We finished the meal and the wine. ‘Come on,’ I said. ‘We’re going to have coffee with the others.’
Georgette opened her bag, made a few passes at her face as she looked in the little mirror, re-defined her lips with the lip-stick, and straightened her hat.
‘Good,’ she said.
We went into the room full of people and Braddocks and the men at his table stood up.
‘I wish to present my fiancée, Mademoiselle Georgette Leblanc,’ I said. Georgette smiled that wonderful smile, and we shook hands all round.
‘Are you related to Georgette Leblanc, the singer?’ Mrs. Braddocks asked.
‘Connais pas,’ Georgette answered.
‘But you have the same name,’ Mrs. Braddocks insisted cordially.
‘No,’ said Georgette. ‘Not at all. My name is Hobin.’
‘But Mr. Barnes introduced you as Mademoiselle Georgette Leblanc. Surely he did,’ insisted Mrs. Braddocks, who in the excitement of talking French was liable to have no idea what she was saying.
‘He’s a fool,’ Georgette said.
‘Oh, it was a joke, then,’ Mrs. Braddocks said.
‘Yes,’ said Georgette. ‘To laugh at.’
‘Did you hear that, Henry?’ Mrs. Braddocks called down the table to Braddocks. ‘Mr. Barnes introduced his fiancée as Mademoiselle Leblanc, and her name is actually Hobin.’
‘Of course, darling. Mademoiselle Hobin, I’ve known her for a very long time.’
‘Oh, Mademoiselle Hobin,’ Frances Clyne called, speaking French very rapidly and not seeming so proud and astonished as Mrs. Braddocks at its coming out really French. ‘Have you been in Paris long? Do you like it here? You love Paris, do you not?’
‘Who’s she?’ Georgette turned to me. ‘Do I have to talk to her?’
She turned to Frances, sitting smiling, her hands folded, her head poised on her long neck, her lips pursed ready to start talking again.
‘No, I don’t like Paris. It’s expensive and dirty.’
‘Really? I find it so extraordinarily clean. One of the cleanest cities in all Europe.’
‘I find it dirty.’
‘How strange! But perhaps you have not been here very long.’
‘I’ve been here long enough.’
‘But it does have nice people in it. One must grant that.’
Georgette turned to me. ‘You have nice friends.’
Frances was a little drunk and would have liked to have kept it up but the coffee came, and Lavigne with the liqueurs, and after that we all went out and started for Braddocks’s dancing-club.
The dancing-club was a bal musette in the Rue de la Montagne Sainte Geneviève. Five nights a week the working people of the Panthéon quarter danced there. One night a week it was the dancing-club. On Monday nights it was closed. When we arrived it was quite empty, except for a policeman sitting near the door, the wife of the proprietor back of the zinc bar, and the proprietor himself. The daughter of the house came downstairs as we went in. There were long benches, and tables ran across the room, and at the far end a dancing-floor.
‘I wish people would come earlier,’ Braddocks said. The daughter came up and wanted to know what we would drink. The proprietor got up on a high stool beside the dancing-floor and began to play the accordion. He had a string of bells around one of his ankles and beat time with his foot as he played. Everyone danced. It was hot and we came off the floor perspiring.
‘My God,’ Georgette said. ‘What a box to sweat in!’
‘It’s hot.’
‘Hot, my God!’
‘Take off your hat.’
‘That’s a good idea.’
Someone asked Georgette to dance, and I went over to the bar. It was really very hot and the accordion music was pleasant in the hot night. I drank a beer, standing in the doorway and getting the cool breath of wind from the street. Two taxis were coming down the steep street. They both stopped in front of the Bal. A crowd of young men, some in jerseys and some in their shirt-sleeves, got out.
I could see their hands and newly washed, wavy hair in the light from the door. The policeman standing by the door looked at me and smiled. They came in. As they went in, under the light I saw white hands, wavy hair, white faces, grimacing, gesturing, talking. With them was Brett. She looked very lovely, and she was very much with them.
One of them saw Georgette and said: ‘I do declare. There is an actual harlot. I’m going to dance with her, Lett. You watch me.’
The tall, dark one, called Lett, said: ‘Don’t you be rash.’
The wavy blond one answered: ‘Don’t you worry, dear.’ And with them was Brett.
I was very angry. Somehow they always made me angry. I know they are supposed to be amusing, and you should be tolerant, but I wanted to swing on one, any one, anything to shatter that superior, simpering composure. Instead, I walked down the street and had a beer at the bar at the next Bal.
The beer was not good and I had a worse cognac to take the taste out of my mouth. When I came back to the Bal there was a crowd on the floor and Georgette was dancing with the tall blond youth, who danced big-hippily, carrying his head on one side, his eyes lifted as he danced. As soon as the music stopped another one of them asked her to dance. She had been taken up by them. I knew then that they would all dance with her. They are like that.
I sat down at a table. Cohn was sitting there. Frances was dancing. Mrs. Braddocks brought up somebody and introduced him as Robert Premiss. He was from New York by way of Chicago, and was a rising new novelist. He had some sort of an English accent. I asked him to have a drink.
‘Thanks so much,’ he said, ‘I’ve just had one.’
‘Have another.’
‘Thanks, I will then.’
We got the daughter of the house over and each had a fine à l’eau.
‘You’re from Kansas City, they tell me,’ he said.
‘Yes.’
‘Do you find Paris amusing?’
‘Yes.’
‘Really?’
I was a little drunk. Not drunk in any positive sense but just enough to be careless.
‘For God’s sake,’ I said, ‘yes. Don’t you?’
‘Oh, how charmingly you get angry,’ he said. ‘I wish I had that faculty.’
I got up and walked over toward the dancing-floor.
Mrs. Braddocks followed me. ‘Don’t be cross with Robert,’ she said. ‘He’s still only a child, you know.’
‘I wasn’t cross,’ I said. ‘I just thought perhaps I was going to throw up.’
‘Your fiancée is having a great success,’ Mrs. Braddocks looked out on the floor where Georgette was dancing in the arms of the tall, dark one, called Lett.
‘Isn’t she?’ I said.
‘Rather,’ said Mrs. Braddocks.
Cohn came up. ‘Come on, Jake,’ he said, ‘have a drink.’
