The Billionaire's Obsession 5 Billionaire Undone J.S. Scott
Co siÄ wydarzyĹo w Springtown Scott DeLoras
H.G. Wells The Door in the Wall and Other Stories
Heart , Diamond and Lankavatara Sutras
Gabrielle Evans [Lawful Disorder 01] Lipstick and Handguns [Siren Classic] (pdf)
Cartland Barbara W ramionach ksićÂcia
62 Miernicki Sebastian Pan Samochodzik i Zamek Czocha
Olivia Cunning One Night with Sole Regret 03 Take me(1)
Williams Cathy Zauroczeni sobćÂ
Naomi Novik Temeraire 1 His Majesty's Dragon
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
Passing, he ambled on toward the garage where he had a room up-stairs. His "How y' all" had been said to
Nancy Lamar, to whom he had not spoken in fifteen years.
Nancy had a mouth like a remembered kiss and shadowy eyes and blue-black hair inherited from her mother
who had been born in Budapest. Jim passed her often in the street, walking small-boy fashion with her hands
in her pockets and he knew that with her inseparable Sally Carrol Hopper she had left a trail of broken hearts
from Atlanta to New Orleans.
For a few fleeting moments Jim wished he could dance. Then he laughed and as he reached his door began to
sing softly to himself:
"Her Jelly Roll can twist your soul,
Her eyes are big and brown,
She's the Queen of the Queens of the Jelly-beans--
My Jeanne of Jelly-bean Town."
II
At nine-thirty Jim and Clark met in front of Soda Sam's and started for the Country Club in Clark's Ford.
"Jim," asked Clark casually, as they rattled through the jasmine-scented night, "how do you keep alive?"
The Jelly-bean paused, considered.
"Well," he said finally, "I got a room over Tilly's garage. I help him some with the cars in the afternoon an' he
gives it to me free. Sometimes I drive one of his taxies and pick up a little thataway. I get fed up doin' that
regular though."
"That all?"
"Well, when there's a lot of work I help him by the day--Saturdays usually--and then there's one main
source of revenue I don't generally mention. Maybe you don't recollect I'm about the champion crap-shooter
of this town. They make me shoot from a cup now because once I get the feel of a pair of dice they just roll
for me."
Clark grinned appreciatively.
"I never could learn to set 'em so's they'd do what I wanted. Wish you'd shoot with Nancy Lamar some day
and take all her money away from her. She will roll 'em with the boys and she loses more than her daddy can
afford to give her. I happen to know she sold a good ring last month to pay a debt."
The Jelly-bean was non-committal.
"The white house on Elm Street still belong to you?"
Jim shook his head.
"Sold. Got a pretty good price, seein' it wasn't in a good part of town no more. Lawyer told me to put it into
Liberty bonds. But Aunt Mamie got so she didn't have no sense, so it takes all the interest to keep her up at
The Jelly-Bean 45
The Diamond as Big as the Ritz and Other Stories
Great Farms Sanitarium.
"Hm."
"I got an old uncle up-state an' I reckin I kin go up there if ever I get sure enough pore. Nice farm, but not
enough niggers around to work it. He's asked me to come up and help him, but I don't guess I'd take much to
it. Too doggone lonesome----" He broke off suddenly. "Clark, I want to tell you I'm much obliged to you
for askin' me out, but I'd be a lot happier if you'd just stop the car right here an' let me walk back into town."
"Shucks!" Clark grunted. "Do you good to step out. You don't have to dance--just get out there on the floor
and shake."
"Hold on," exclaimed Jim uneasily, "Don't you go leadin' me up to any girls and leavin' me there so I'll have
to dance with 'em."
Clark laughed.
"'Cause," continued Jim desperately, "without you swear you won't do that I'm agoin' to get out right here an'
my good legs goin' carry me back to Jackson Street."
They agreed after some argument that Jim, unmolested by females, was to view the spectacle from a secluded
settee in the corner where Clark would join him whenever he wasn't dancing.
So ten o'clock found the Jelly-bean with his legs crossed and his arms conservatively folded, trying to look
casually at home and politely uninterested in the dancers. At heart he was torn between overwhelming
self-consciousness and an intense curiosity as to all that went on around him. He saw the girls emerge one by
one from the dressing-room, stretching and pluming themselves like bright birds, smiling over their
powdered shoulders at the chaperones, casting a quick glance around to take in the room and, simultaneously,
the room's reaction to their entrance--and then, again like birds, alighting and nestling in the sober arms of
their waiting escorts. Sally Carrol Hopper, blonde and lazy-eyed, appeared clad in her favorite pink and
blinking like an awakened rose. Marjorie Haight, Marylyn Wade, Harriet Cary, all the girls he had seen
loitering down Jackson Street by noon, now, curled and brilliantined and delicately tinted for the overhead
lights, were miraculously strange Dresden figures of pink and blue and red and gold, fresh from the shop and
not yet fully dried.
He had been there half an hour, totally uncheered by Clark's jovial visits which were each one accompanied
by a "Hello, old boy, how you making out?" and a slap at his knee. A dozen males had spoken to him or
stopped for a moment beside him, but he knew that they were each one surprised at finding him there and
fancied that one or two were even slightly resentful. But at half past ten his embarrassment suddenly left him
and a pull of breathless interest took him completely out of himself--Nancy Lamar had come out of the
dressing-room.
She was dressed in yellow organdie, a costume of a hundred cool corners, with three tiers of ruffles and a big
bow in back until she shed black and yellow around her in a sort of phosphorescent lustre. The Jelly-bean's
eyes opened wide and a lump arose in his throat. For a minute she stood beside the door until her partner
hurried up. Jim recognized him as the stranger who had been with her in Joe Ewing's car that afternoon. He
saw her set her arms akimbo and say something in a low voice, and laugh. The man laughed too and Jim
experienced the quick pang of a weird new kind of pain. Some ray had passed between the pair, a shaft of
beauty from that sun that had warmed him a moment since. The Jelly-bean felt suddenly like a weed in a
shadow.
The Jelly-Bean 46
The Diamond as Big as the Ritz and Other Stories
A minute later Clark approached him, bright-eyed and glowing.
"Hi, old man," he cried with some lack of originality. "How you making out?"
Jim replied that he was making out as well as could be expected.
"You come along with me," commanded Clark. "I've got something that'll put an edge on the evening."
Jim followed him awkwardly across the floor and up the stairs to the locker-room where Clark produced a
flask of nameless yellow liquid.
"Good old corn."
Ginger ale arrived on a tray. Such potent nectar as "good old corn" needed some disguise beyond seltzer.
"Say, boy," exclaimed Clark breathlessly, "doesn't Nancy Lamar look beautiful?"
Jim nodded.
"Mighty beautiful," he agreed.
"She's all dolled up to a fare-you-well to-night," continued Clark. "Notice that fellow she's with?"
"Big fella? White pants?"
"Yeah. Well, that's Ogden Merritt from Savannah. Old man Merritt makes the Merritt safety razors. This [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
