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Show 191 with other men for his benefit. She had scrupulously avoided Noel but busied herself laughing at John Drury's jokes for starters and then moved on to feed Keith Meredith olives from a toothpick, and then had disappeared with Ron Nash into the kitchen and did not come out for a long time. While disclosing his heartburn to Gloriana he had seen, over by the iron plantstand, a forehead-to-forehead conversation between Yvonne and Pern's Jackson, a black pianist (actually yellow, with a ravaged, leather face) who was connected with the dance department. While admitting to the probability of ulcers he had noticed her attention momentarily leave Pern's and center on himself. She placed a hand on Pern's's wrist, and he knew he was due for a visit any moment. She would want to see how she was doing. "Have you by any chance been to the John yet?" she asked. "I don't mean to pry or anything." "I don't believe I have," said Lorin. "You'll want to look in the bathtub when you do," she said. "All right." "What's in the bathtub?" Gloriana asked. "It's sort of a painting, actually," said Yvonne, laughing. "It's all crumpled up and soaking under water." "Why in the world?" "He wants to scrape the paint off and use the canvas over again," Lorin said. "Can you do that? I thought you nust painted over something you didn't want any more." "The one underneath always shows through," he said. "This way you can pretend the first time never happened." He stared at Yvonne's ankles and hoped she noticed. |