FLAMING
YOUTH
43
“Yes, he did.”
“Dirty work!” Lighting a cigarette Dee took a few puffs, but without inhaling. “Going to tell Mona?” The two older girls habitually spoke of their mother and sometimes to her by her given name. “TI don’t know. What do you think?” “T think she’d laugh.” “Dad wouldn’t.”
- Dad’s old. Mona’s one of our kind. She’s as modern
as jazz.” “Dad may be old but it hasn’t slowed him up so much, yet. He was the life of the party.”
“Oh, Dad’s all right. I’m for him, myself. But he’s all for Pat. There might be fireworks if he knew she was starting in this early.” “There were never any about Mona.” “Meaning?”
“Well, Sid Rathbone. others.”
And Tom Merrill.
And a few
“She doesn’t interfere with his little amusements, either,
if you come to that. Have you noticed anything about her lately?” “Yes. She looks like a ghost in the mornings.” “Bobs has been trying to get her to put on the brakes.” “Funny old Bobs! He’s pippy on you, isn’t he, Dee?” “Me! Ishould say not. It’s Mona.” “Can you blame him? With her war paint on she’s got us both faded.” “Sometimes when I catch him looking at her with that poodle dog expression of his, I wonder whether there’s something really wrong with her.” “Probably it’s just the pace. What’ll we be like at her age, if we last that long?” Constance’s soft mouth hardened as she seated herself at the desk and scratched
