The Oriental Wife by Evelyn Toynton

Author:Evelyn Toynton [Toynton, Evelyn]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 978-1-59051-442-9
Publisher: Other Press
Published: 2011-07-18T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

I love this one like she was my own baby,” Mrs. Sprague announced, which Sophie wasn’t sure was in good taste. She wasn’t sure, either, that Emma’s face was any cleaner than it had been when Katy was in charge, but the child was obviously happy, almost aggressively so, banging lustily with a serving spoon on the little tray of her high chair. Meanwhile Mrs. Sprague was putting away the fruits of their recent excursion to Dyckman Street: brightly colored packets and tins, Wonder Bread in shiny red-white-and-blue wrapping, pressed turkey, and other things that Sophie had never seen before.

As she moved around, chatting animatedly, she paused frequently to make little noises at Emma, who became agitated and held up her hands. “How’s Aunt May going to get her work done with you on her shoulder, you little devil?” Mrs. Sprague cried, but she picked her up nonetheless. When Sophie offered to take her from her to free up her hands she surrendered her reluctantly, laughing in admiration as the baby grabbed a lock of Sophie’s hair and pulled at it. “She’s such a smart little thing, isn’t she,” she said proudly, and then took her back uninvited, Emma squirming toward her in her excitement.

“Yes, you want your Aunt May, don’t you,” she said with satisfaction. She shook some frosted cookies from a packet onto a plate. Since Sophie’s last visit, the kitchen table had acquired an oilcloth covered with red and orange squares; a sampler hung on the wall that said, in shaky cross-stitches, Hope springs eternal.

“Where is Louisa?” Sophie asked her; it was Louisa she had spoken to on the phone earlier, to ask about coming.

“Oh, she’s in her room,” Mrs. Sprague said. “I thought she needed a little rest. She’s got herself a typewriter now, she says she’s going to learn to type, although what she wants to do that for I really couldn’t say.” Then, when Sophie was silent, she asked her in a not entirely friendly voice how she liked America.

“I like it very much,” Sophie said levelly. “It is a wonderful country.”

“Because I guess you had to get out of your own country, didn’t you,” Mrs. Sprague said. “Mr. Furchgott was telling me about it. Oh, the wicked things that man Hitler did, I’ve read about them in the papers. You can’t believe there are such wicked people in the world, can you?”

No, Sophie said, it was hard to believe. They sat in silence for a moment. The baby’s cotton shirt had worked its way up her chest, leaving her little stomach exposed; suddenly Sophie remembered her children’s small bodies, how she had kissed their stomachs and their pudgy legs while they squealed with joy.

Well, she for one couldn’t understand taking against people that way, Mrs. Sprague said. “Look at Mr. Furchgott, nobody could be more of a gentleman. It’s a real pleasure to work for him, I can tell you.” She sat down, bouncing Emma on her knee, and reached for a

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.