Page 199 - Always Virginia

Always Virginia 187

robe she wouldn’t go and let them in, so I never got to see them
and they never came back. I think they knew she was in the house.
So do I hear from ’em? I don’t anymore. Father Haggerty I do on
Christmas and everything, but not Corbett.

Jack: Do you remember when you used to come up to Peoria
and see me during the war?

Mary Pearl: I remember coming up. Only you used to sit on
the top step when you knew it was me, and you’d say, “What you
got for me, Nanny?” [Laughs a lot.] You always knew I brought
you something.

Jack: Do you remember one time when you came in and you
picked me up and you had on a sharp brooch, and I caught my
cheek on it and cut it?

Mary Pearl: Yes, it scratched ya. Oh, I never! Boy, that taught
me a lesson. Whenever I was gonna pick up a little baby, I’d take a
pin off. They used to wear them—remember, Virginia?—wear a pin
or a brooch or something up here, and it scratched poor Jack’s face.

Jack: And made me as ugly as I am today.

Mary Pearl: It didn’t feel very good getting scratched.

Jack: Who did you say I look like now?

Mary Pearl: Uncle Jim Day. I think you’re just the image of
him. And he was handsome. I’ll say that too.

Jack: Keep saying it.

Mary Pearl: He was one of the Lawlers, of the Days, I mean.

Virginia: He wants that on record.

Mary Pearl: [Laughs heartily.] He really was!