“How’s school coming, Walter?” Elsie asked.
Walter was taking a premed course at night school; this was his one night off for the week. Days he worked in a bookstore on Chestnut Street. He nodded and said, “Pretty good.”
Elsie was comparing him, mentally, with Mae’s boy friend, Bob. Walter wasn’t quite as tall as Bob, but he wasn’t bad-looking in spite of his glasses. And he was sure a lot smarter than Bob was and would get further some day. Bob was learning printing and was halfway through his apprenticeship now. He’d quit high school in his third year.
When they got to Elsie’s studio, she found four glasses in the cupboard, even if they were all different sizes and shapes, and then she rummaged around for crackers and peanut butter while Bob opened the wine and filled the glasses.
It was Elsie’s first party in the studio, and it turned out not to be a very wicked one. They talked about the horror picture mostly, and Bob refilled their glasses a couple of times, but none of them felt it much.
Then the conversation ran down a bit and it was still early. Elsie said, “Bob, you used to do some good card tricks. I got a deck in the drawer there. Show us.”
That’s how it started, as simply as that. Bob took the deck and had Mae draw a card. Then he cut the deck and had Mae put it back in at the cut, and let her cut them a few times, and then he went through the deck, face up, and showed her the card, the nine of spades.
Walter watched without particular interest. He probably wouldn’t have said anything if Elsie hadn’t piped up, “Bob, that’s wonderful. I don’t see how you do it.” So Walter told her, “It’s easy; he looked at the bottom card before he started, and when he cut her card into the deck, that card would be on top of it, so he just picked out the card that was next to it.”
Elsie saw the look Bob was giving Walter and she tried to cover up by saying how clever it was even when you knew how it worked, but Bob said, “Wally, maybe you can show us something good. Maybe you’re Houdini’s pet nephew or something.”
Walter grinned at him. He said, “If I had a hat, I might show you one.” It was safe; neither of the boys had worn hats. Mae pointed to the tricky little thing she’d taken off her head and put on Elsie’s dresser. Walter scowled at it. “Call that a hat? Listen, Bob, I’m sorry I gave your trick away. Skip it; I’m no good at them.”