Seconds (Jerry eBooks) by David Ely

Author:David Ely [Ely, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Jerry eBooks
Published: 2016-06-22T04:00:00+00:00

The cocktail party was held five days later. John handled all of the arrangements, sending out invitations, hiring additional servants for the occasion, and leaving nothing for Wilson to do but study the guest list, where beside each name John had helpfully noted the person’s physical characteristics and occupation.

Dutifully, Wilson studied the list, virtually committing it to memory. All of the men, he saw, were “about 40,” and all of them, too, were engaged in rather vague occupations, There were several investment analysts, which could mean almost anything; a few were writers, and some were listed as “commercial representatives,” or “industrial consultants,” while one was frankly identified as “retired.” Wilson supposed that this last man represented a failure on the part of the company’s guidance adviser, Mr. Davalo. Yet wouldn’t it be simpler, he thought, for all the clients to be considered as retired? That’s what they were, surely. And then, too, why was he so compulsively studying the list of guests, when every item of information on it was meaningless, in the sense that all had been artificially created by the physicians and technicians of the company back East? John had written “bald spot” beside the name of a Mr. Filter, but that attribute was undoubtedly a subtle refinement sketched on Filter’s scalp in the Delivery Room some few short months ago; and what if that gentleman were questioned rather closely on his supposed specialty of investment analysis . . . would he fumble for answers and grow embarrassed and seek to find some other topic of conversation?

However, Wilson firmly dismissed from his mind such impertinent speculations—after all, he himself would be equally vulnerable in matters of art—and determined to carry out his responsibilities as host in good faith. At least the women were bona fide, he reflected. Some were wives, according to John’s list, while others were merely noted delicately as “friend” of the gentlemen they were to accompany. There were, all together, twenty-four men and women. Quite a crowd for him to manage by himself, Wilson thought, and he suddenly wished that Emily were with him for the occasion. Despite her failings, she was a skillful hostess and invariably had undertaken the management of all the bores and drunks and lechers who had attended their parties in Connecticut. John, of course, would take care of the canapes and the drinks, but for the rest of it—the small talk, the maneuvering of groups, the instinct for anticipating trouble spots—a woman was absolutely necessary. Wilson wondered: should he ask John to engage some mature lady for the evening? Surely there were women who did this sort of thing. Then he recalled that John’s previous choice of female companionship for him had not been too successful, and so he decided not to risk making matters worse. He would face his guests alone.

On the afternoon of the party, Wilson’s resolution weakened. He realized that for months he had been virtually a recluse. How well would he stand up to the inspection

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