“You think,” Sarah said, “that Biff brought on that accident on purpose, to skip being drafted! It amuses you—in a nice, fiendish way!”
Jimmie was startled. Her conclusion was accurate. Evidently, she had been wondering about his behavior at the hospital; and the selfsame theory had skipped through her own mind, and she had instantly fitted it upon him. The Baileys, he thought, were equipped with subtle minds—when they wanted to use them subtly. He wondered what he should say to Sarah—and he was staring at her lazily while he tried to make up his mind—when his father spoke for him.
“Sarah! I don’t want you to say anything like that again—ever! Jimmie was darned fine with Biff just now!”
Sarah said, “You’ve considered the possibility, too, Dad!”
“Sarah!!!” That was Mrs. Bailey.
Mr. Bailey, meanwhile, was facing his daughter and growing red. “What kind of a contemptible piece of perverted nonsense is this, daughter! Biff did no such thing.
Jimmie thought no such thing. No such foul idea ever touched my own mind! I’ve noticed several times recently that you have a taint of evil-thinking, though—like your mother’s mother. You watch that, Sarah!”
A fraction of Sarah’s black hair was immaculately made up in a flattened pompadour that stood out over her forehead like a segment of a fat, flat snake. The remainder billowed down her back in a Nubian cascade. When she swung her head about quickly, which she did often, her back hair flared like a dancer’s skirt, and her pompadour wobbled. It was alluring—under the proper hat. Au naturel, it was grotesque.
The rest of Sarah was handsome enough. An inexperienced young woman. A highly untamed young woman. That combination meant—she would get the experience, someday. Just as her mother had. And, like her mother, she would probably have an experience which was mostly confining and arbitrary, so her taming would consist of a shift of her libido to clubs, civic improvement, national affairs, and, no doubt, the rabid avoidance of international entanglements.
Jimmie smiled. “Withdraw the subject, Sarah. It’s out of bounds, anyhow. Biff’s hurt worse now than he’d ever have been in any training camp!”