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"So we spent our last hour at Blackwood Manor trying to convince Jasot hold of it -- she was already doing ninety-nine percent of the work -- she would do fine As to her pay, it was to be tripled And Aunt Queen would have worked out a percentage of the profits, except that the percentage systeure it out
"At last it was decided that our attorney Grady Breen would take over the bookkeeping and that Jas and to hostess work, and Jaset her percentage without fearing she'd signed some sort of pact with the Devil Meantime, all of us told her how beautiful she was, how polished she was and how overqualified she hich did not help as much as we had hoped
"Cle Ramona promised to back her up completely, and with kisses and embraces, as well as Jasmine's tearful farewell, we hit the road for New Orleans in Aunt Queen's stretch limousine
"When after a brief stop at the hotel to approve our fabulous digs we reached the Grand Lumini¨¨re Caf¨¦, Mona rose froone of her big white shirts, complete hite ruffles and bows at her wrists, but I could see the intravenous port with its evil carbuncle of tubing and tape on the back of her inflaht hand
"I sat down at the Mayfair table with her, and in an intimate voice told her of what the doctor had said to Aunt Queen, that this ht be her last trip to Europe
" 'Oh, I approve utterly and totally of your going,' Mona said 'Youfine My condition is stable Look, I have to be wired up again tonight ' She held up the bandaged hand 'Do you want to co, I can assure you -- ¡¯
" 'I',' I said 'I never made love to anybody ired up ¡¯
" 'Good,' she said in a shisper, 'because I have three or four baby quilts to ruin, and then we can read Hah's version with all the screenplay directions, and we can pretend we're seeing it all over again In fact, you can recite Gertrude's speech describing Ophelia's drowning, and I will lie as if dead on the pillow I've already strewn flowers all over the bed Oh, I ahed
" 'No, my Ophelia Immortal,' I said, 'and that's the name under which I'll write to you from Europe, and the name under which I'll E-mail you on the computer, my Ophelia Immortal I think it is the most splendid name I ever heard ¡¯
"I told her how that afternoon I'd put the film on the TV just to watch that scene of Ophelia underwater 'I love you that you love it,' I said, 'but you'll be Ophelia Immortal because you'll never drown, you know that, don't you? We have to get that straight, don't we? That you're Ophelia in suspended animation, one most "capable of her own distress" and of her ecstasy, and born up forever on "her melodious lay " ¡¯
"She laughed and kissed me warmly 'You really do know the words, don't you?' she said 'Oh, I love you for it And E-mails, why didn't I think of it? Of course, we'll E-mail each other from Europe, and write also We have to print out our letters Our correspondence will be as famous as that of H¨¦lo?se and Abelard ¡¯
" 'Absolutely,' I said with a little shudder 'But nothing so long and chaste, my beloved; I'll be home and you'll be cured and we'll soon be in each other's arht 'By the way, you do know that for his love of H¨¦lo?se, Abelard was castrated, don't you? We don't want anything so dreadful to happen to me ¡¯
" 'It's a e into the same person as Ophelia would have done with Hamlet if only his father hadn't been killed ¡¯
"I kissed her longingly and lovingly ' "Oh, brave neorld that hath such creatures in it," ' I quoted 'What other fifteen-year-old in the world would know such things?¡¯
" 'You ought to talk to reen eyes firing beautifully 'It's perfectly egregious that Mayfair and Mayfair insists onmy billions I know more about stocks and bonds than anybody in the firm ¡¯