University of Virginia Library

We Wait for Anna

Talking about food aggravated our situation, and we hungrily watched the clock for Anna to return. She had given us her solemn word of honor—crossed her neck and crossed her heart, wished she might die a horrible death if she didn't, etc.—that she would order without stint at the dinner hour, and that she would stow away in her own ample insides only one third of the dinner. The remaining two- thirds she was to surreptitiously confine to the capacious bag with which we had provided her and which was to mask as a handkerchief holder.

At ten, there was no sign of Anna, so Jossy suggested that we should go and look for her. She declared that, in a way, we were Anna's guardians and chaperones and it was not proper for a young and innocent girl to be out alone at night with a man. They never did such things in Tennessee, Jocelyn assured me solemnly.

So we two sallied forth, and arrived duly at the dance hall, which was above a well-known German restaurant of the East Side. We were some time in discovering our Anna, for she was backed up against a wall, hidden by a solid mass of admiring and besieging males. I could see at once that my dress had made a hit. Foremost in this crowd of Anna's admirers was the man from the parlor floor.