Free The Last Adam by James Gould Cozzens Page B

enclosing fence of woven chestnut paling, Virginia watched her headlights sweep the garage and stable. Immediately mounted up the boom of deep-throated barking. Virginia could see, now that she was past the fence, the twin dog-houses near the door of Larry's living quarters. Out of them were thrust the smooth piebald heads, large ears cocked bristling, belligerent, of the Great Danes. Observing that this car was going right into the garage, first Delilah, then, eagerly, Samson, planted massive thick-toed forepaws on the trampled snow. Their splotch-marked bodies emerged. First one, then the other, barked; monitory rather than excited. With diligent haste, majestic in their mere stature, they bounded together in order to investigate.
    Virginia brought Guy's car to a halt beside her father's; switched off the ignition and then the lights. She could hear the pad of heavy feet on the cement. Samson's sharp ears and bold, big muzzle appeared, face to face with her, his paws supported on the doortop at her side. He made at once a gratified whining sound. Jostling him, up came Delilah, pawing Virginia's leather-covered shoulder with her blunt claws. Virginia sat still a moment and Samson's wide wet tongue slapped vigorously down her cheek. Recoiling, she pushed his head away, opened the door, forcing them both down, and stepped out. Delilah made a half wheel, collapsed, displaying her long, nipple-marked breast and belly to be scratched. Virginia started to put out a foot, but her knees, she found, were not yet steady. Samson pushed his heavy head confidingly against her hip, crowding closer.
    The kindness of this reception seemed enough to kill her. Virginia could feel a violent tingling in the bridge of her nose; tears swam warm into her eyes; a trembling came over her and her chest swelled to suffocation. She sniffed a little, and Delilah rolled back; disappointed, she arose to her feet. Both of them tilted their heads up to regard her face, their tongues hanging in mild wonder.
    She managed to say, "Leave me alone, you damn fools!" for she knew that they were going to do that in a moment. Their instinctive, reasonless jubilation at sight of her would be innocently exhausted. The dog-houses, slightly warmed by their big bodies, were where they wanted to be, since there was nothing to eat and no one to attack. They would withdraw, her two last senseless friends, bored with her. "Get away!" she choked. She went and snapped out the garage lights. In the darkness she could see the dogs' big shadowy shapes slip round the jamb, out against the starlit snow. When she had come out and pulled down the overhead doors, she saw that they were already back, snug in their kennels.
     
    At the top, across the back of the last cheque, Mr. Banning wrote Herbert Tracy Banning for deposit only. He blotted it, laid it with the others. Turning the little pile over, he took the deposit slip and compared the list. Since it was correct, he put cheques and slip together in a long envelope and addressed it to his New York bank. Laying his pen on the rack of an old Sheffield tray, he sat back in his chair, thoughtful.
    A pad covered with columns of his neat figures informed him that he was slightly better off than he had expected to be. There might not be much margin this year; but really it was remarkable that there was any margin at all.
    Part of the difference, he supposed, was not having Virginia's school bills through the winter. Getting herself expelled from Miss Keble's, however regrettable, would seem to have been a very comfortable financial lift. A solid contribution, in fact; both to him, and, little as Guy might suspect it, to Guy. It would not be necessary to bring up the matter of Guy's expenses—
    This was Guy's third year at Yale, and he had managed to spend progressively more money. Naturally, he did it without making a splurge. Being ostentatiously rich was something he and his friends regarded with contemptuous distaste; the only