Read Online The Magnificent Spinster by May Sarton - Free Book Online

them Quentin Blake, just graduating from Harvard and snatched by the army as he was about to enter law school. He managed to take a night train up and had two days in which to woo Jane, something he found quite frustrating, for the island had become an enterprise for raising food, and Jane met him in her gardening khaki pants and shirt, and as soon as he had changed she took him to the big cleared place where Martha and Alix and Pappa were hard at work hoeing between long rows of corn and cabbage for what seemed an eternal two hours before she relented, and allowed that they might go for a swim. At least for the walk down to the pool he had her to himself. He lost no time.
    â€œOh Jane,” he said, “you’re beautiful!”
    â€œDon’t,” she pleaded, and he saw her blush.
    â€œDon’t what?”
    â€œDon’t say flattering things. Can’t we be just as we always were? Remember when you chased me down to the dock and I fell in?”
    â€œI wanted to kiss you then and I want to kiss you now. Please Jane, try to be human for a change.” He felt quite cross. Jane didn’t play the game, and how did one get hold of such an elusive person?
    He had touched her to the quick and her response was slow in coming. They walked along side by side and he felt diminished in every way … even the fact that she was taller than he was a humiliation. Finally she looked at him, then looked down as she said, “Quentin, it’s human not to want to kiss someone, isn’t it? You’re my dear friend, but I’m not ready to commit myself. Don’t you see?”
    â€œOne kiss isn’t that serious, is it?” he teased, blocking her way.
    â€œIt might not be for you—I suppose you’ve kissed a hundred girls,” and her eyes flashed dark blue, close to anger, he could see.
    â€œI don’t understand you,” he said bitterly, as she pushed past him. “Belle dame sans merci … the role doesn’t suit you.”
    But this sally had the unexpected effect of making Jane, who had been so serious a second before, suddenly burst into laughter, and run down the path until he caught her by the hand.
    â€œThe belle dame sans merci .” She faced him, still laughing. “Oh Quentin, you are such an idiot!” But under the laughter she herself had to recognize that she simply did not like being wooed, if that was what Quentin was doing.
    And it was quite a relief when the others joined them at the pool and she could swim in peace while Quentin, still disgruntled, sat at her mother’s feet.
    I am a little in love with him, she thought, floating on her back and looking up at the sky, watching a gull fly over, but something in her violently resisted being swept away into all sorts of feelings she was not ready to accept. No, she told herself, I want to find out first what I can do myself. She hated the pressure put upon her by his feeling as though she were a wild animal and he had a net in his hands. Why do I feel like this? she asked herself, startled by the force of the image that had come out of the blue. It did not help that Alix was in love already and that Edith seemed on the verge of marrying a young psychologist from Colorado. When Jane tried to talk to Alix, she was told, “Don’t worry. You’re just not in love. When you are there won’t be any problem. You’ll just know .…”
    Quentin, Norris, Paul … Jane felt hedged around with young men who wanted something of her she could not quite give. And since she was not a belle dame sans merci , not a flirt by nature as Viola and even sweet Alix were, she could not enjoy this predicament. It seemed to get in the way of everything she did want, the dream of heroic action, of proving herself as every young man going off to war was about to do.
    Most of what was happening came from far away to people at home, the horrible trench warfare which the men who were living