Page 432 - tender-is-the-night

unannounced. Waiters called accounts and demanded
settlements in impassioned voices, there were oaths and de-
nials; the tossing of bills too large and change too small;
passouts were assisted to the boats, and the voices of the
naval police chopped with quick commands through all
voices. There were cries, tears, shrieks, promises as the first
launch shoved off and the women crowded forward on the
wharf, screaming and waving.
Tommy saw a girl rush out upon the balcony below wav-
ing a napkin, and before he could see whether or not the
rocking Englishwomen gave in at last and acknowledged
her presence, there was a knock at their own door. Outside,
excited female voices made them agree to unlock it, dis-
closing two girls, young, thin and barbaric, unfound rather
than lost, in the hall. One of them wept chokingly.
‘Kwee wave off your porch?’ implored the other in pas-
sionate American. ‘Kwee please? Wave at the boy friends?
Kwee, please. The other rooms is all locked.’
‘With pleasure,’ Tommy said.
The girls rushed out on the balcony and presently their
voices struck a loud treble over the din.
‘‘By, Charlie! Charlie, look UP!’
‘Send a wire gen’al alivery Nice!’
‘Charlie! He don’t see me.’
One of the girls hoisted her skirt suddenly, pulled and
ripped at her pink step-ins and tore them to a sizable flag;
then, screaming ‘Ben! Ben!’ she waved it wildly. As Tommy
and Nicole left the room it still fluttered against the blue
sky. Oh, say can you see the tender color of remembered

432 Tender is the Night