Candy Read Free Page A

moment in the pool of sherry, wallowing and groaning.
    Candy was startled almost to alarm, standing now, one hand to her mouth.
    “Oh, Professor Mephesto, I—”
    “Comfort those whose needs are greatest, my dear,” he implored her from where he lay, arms outstretched to take her fully would she but come to him. “Remember the ‘thrilling privilege’!”
    But the poor girl was too frightened, and still terribly upset about having broken the glass.
    “Oh, I don’t know—” she stammered, almost tearfully, “I—I’m so afraid—I only wish—”
    She stopped short as the door burst open and in came the young sullen-faced boy who had so begrudgingly conveyed the invitation to her. His eyes went wild and his face pale as he looked from one to the other of them.
    “Excuse me!” he said then haughtily and turned on his heel to leave.
    “Wait, Holly!” cried the professor, struggling to his feet, “Wait . . . it’s only—” He got up, brushing himself awkwardly; he was clearly embarrassed, and the boy meanwhile had stopped in the half-open door, waiting, indeed.
    “I’d better be going,” said the boy, when no further explanation came.
    “No, no, Holly,” said Professor Mephesto, collecting himself and coming to the boy. “Go into the inner office,” he said firmly.
    The boy looked at him, no longer pale now, sulky and dark.
    “Go,” repeated the professor; then he laid a hand on the boy’s arm. “I’ll go with you,” he said gently, “come.”
    He turned to Candy just before closing the inner-office door. “Excuse us for a minute, please,” he said.
    “Yes, of course,” said the bewildered girl, and she sat down again in the chair. For a moment she could hear the murmur of their voices, then something like a door slamming and she knew the young man had left. She waited a minute but the professor did not return. Selfish! Selfish! she was thinking of herself. To be needed by this great man! And to be only concerned with my material self! She was horribly ashamed. How he needs me! And I deny him! I deny him! Oh, how did I dare?
    She listened, and her heart grew swollen and soft within her as she heard what was unmistakably a sob. “Oh Prof—” She could not bear it; he was alone, weeping in his need for her—”Oh, Meph, Meph,” she started up, and toward the door. She would go to him, give herself to him—fully. She recalled the image of her nakedness in the glass as she had stepped from the bath this morning. Yes, she was lovely; she would give him that—fully. Fleetingly now, as she put her hand on the knob of the inner-office door, she wished that she had worn her finest underthings, but she knew with satisfaction that these were fresh and sweet. And then she heard another sob, a moan. “I’m coming, Meph” she whispered, and softly opened the door.
    But the young man had not left, and Candy was confronted with an extraordinary scene. The two of them were dancing about the clothes-strewn room, stark naked, flailing each other wildly with wet hand towels, moaning and sobbing, their bodies reddened and welted.
    They didn’t see her, or if they did, were not distracted, so intense their engagement as they lashed out in great frenzy. Candy closed the door quickly and rushed out o£ the office and down the long quiet hall, finally bursting into tears, only conscious now of her swift little footsteps, and of her terrible selfishness, how it had driven Professor Mephesto, in his frustration, to . . . goodness knows what! “Oh, how could I?” she kept demanding of herself. “How could I?”
    By the time she reached home, however, she was more composed; at least she was eager to tell her father about the A-plus thesis she had done.
    Mr. Christian was sitting in his armchair, reading the paper.
    “Hi!” he said, glancing at his watch as she came in. “Have a nice day?” He knew enough to alternate his salutation from “Learn anything?” to “Have a nice day?” and he did this with