There was a silence.
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hen he said, “Maybe you would like a bite to eat afterwards” I detected the vocabulary of Mrs Willard and my heart sank. MrsWillard always invited you for a bite to eat. 1 remembered that thisman had been a guest at Mrs Willard’s house when he first cameto America—Mrs Willard had one of these arrangements where youopen your house to foreigners and then when you go abroad theyopen their houses to you. I now saw quite clearly that Mrs Willard had simply traded heropen house in Russia for my bite to eat in New York. “Yes, | would like a bite to eat,’ I said stiffly. “What time will youcome?” “Tl call for you in my car about two. It’s the Amazon, isn’t it?” “Yes” “Ah, I know where that is.” For a moment I thought his tone was laden with special meaning,and then I figured that probably some of the girls at the Amazonwere Secretaries at the UN and maybe he had taken one of them outat one time. I let him hang up first, and then I hung up and lay backin the pillows, feeling grim. There I went again, building up a glamorous picture of a man whowould love me passionately the minute he met me, and all out of afew prosy nothings. A duty tour of the UN and a post-UN sandwich! I tried to jack up my morale. Probably Mrs Willard’s simultaneous interpreter would be shortand ugly and I would come to look down on him in the end the wayI looked down on Buddy Willard. This thought gave me a certainsatisfaction. Because I did look down on Buddy Willard, andalthough everybody still thought I would marry him when he cameout of the TB place, I knew I would never marry him if he were thelast man on earth.
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