The Beautiful and Damned / Прекрасные и обреченные. Уровень 4

Then they returned toward the Plaza, talking about nothing, but glad for the spring. Gloria walked ahead of him.

“Oh!” she cried, “I want to go south! I want to get out in the air and just roll around on the new grass and forget there’s ever been any winter.”

“Don’t you, though!”

“I want to hear a million robins. I like birds.”

“All women are birds,” he ventured.

“What kind am I?”

“A swallow, I think, and sometimes a bird of paradise. Most girls are sparrows, of course. And of course you’ve met canary girls – and robin girls.”

“And swan girls and parrot girls. All grown women are hawks, I think, or owls.”

“What am I – a buzzard?”

She laughed and shook her head.

“Oh, no, you’re not a bird at all. You’re a Russian wolfhound. Dick’s a fox terrier, a trick fox terrier,” she continued.

“And Maury’s a cat.”

Later, as they parted, Anthony asked when he might see her again. She thought for a moment. “Maybe next Sunday.”

“All right.”

And when the day came they sat upon the lounge. After a while Anthony kissed her. And he had told her gently, almost in the middle of a kiss, that he loved her, and she had smiled and held him closer and murmured, “I’m glad,” looking into his eyes.

He had felt nearer to her than ever before. In a rare delight he cried aloud to the room that he loved her.

He phoned next morning:

“Good morning, Gloria.”

“Good morning.”

“I just called to say that.”

“I’m glad you did.”

“I wish I could see you.”

“You will, tomorrow night.”

“That’s a long time, isn’t it?”

“Yes.” Her voice was reluctant.

“Couldn’t I come tonight?”

“I have a date.”

“Oh.”

“But I might – I might be able to break it.”

“Oh! Gloria?”

“What?”

“I love you.”

Another pause and then:

“I–I’m glad.”

When Anthony walked down the tenth-floor corridor of the Plaza that night, his dark eyes were gleaming. He knocked and entered. Gloria, dressed in pink, was across the room, standing very still, and looking at him. As he closed the door behind him she gave a little cry and moved.

Book Two

Chapter I

The Radiant Hour

After a fortnight Anthony and Gloria began talk about marriage.

“Tell me all the reasons why you’re going to marry me in June,” said Anthony.

“Well, because you’re so clean, like I am. There are two sorts, you know. One’s like Dick: he’s clean like polished pans. You and I are clean like streams and winds. I can tell whenever I see a person whether he is clean, and if so, which kind of clean he is.”

“We’re twins.”

“Mother says” – she hesitated uncertainly – “mother says that two souls are sometimes created together and – and in love before they’re born.”

He lifted up his head and laughed soundlessly toward the ceiling. When his eyes came back to her he saw that she was angry.

“Why did you laugh?” she cried, “you’ve done that twice before. There’s nothing funny about our relation to each other.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Oh, don’t say you’re sorry! If you can’t think of anything better than that, just keep quiet!”

“I love you.”

“I don’t care.”

There was a pause. Anthony was depressed. At length Gloria murmured: