“A WOMAN,” me ma says to me in Irish, when we’re leaving this morning, “has to he generous with her man.”“A WOMAN,” me ma says to me in Irish, when we’re leaving this morning, “has to he generous with her man.”
“ ’Tis true,” I say, thinking I’m plenty generous.
“And doesn’t that mean more than just making love when he wants to?”
“It does,” I say, not knowing exactly what it means at all, at all.
So I think about it all the way down here. Dermot, poor dear man, is interested in what they’re saying on the radio about Father Placid and the investigation of IIA ‘s finances. The money from the concert has been frozen, which means he can’t spend it and neither can anyone else.
Next time I do something for charity, I’ll check into it a lot more carefully. And meself an accountant at that!
Still, I’m wondering what generosity means.
I thought I was very generous tonight, drying him with me towel and asking him to dry me. ’Tis great fun altogether. We drove each other out of our minds, and the moonlight coming in off the Shannon. But whatever is supposed to happen when a man and a woman abandon themselves didn’t quite happen. I think we were close. But somewhere we weren’t close enough.
Should I blame him or meself?
That’s a silly question. I’m ashamed of meself for asking. We both need to get the hang of it.
And we will, damn it.
Sorry. We will with Your help.
Which I expect, and the sooner the better.
This isn’t exactly her room. Nor is this the bed where she and her husband made love for the first time. But it had to be in about the same space. I suppose it took them awhile to get the hang of it, too. Maybe even longer, because they knew a lot less in those days than we do today. Still, too much knowledge can be a problem, can’t it now?
Well, I promise You one thing: we’ll work it out before we leave here!
And, Augusta Downs, I know you ‘re lurking around here someplace. I know you brought us here to do something for you. I half think you also are going to reward us for being here. Well, you know what I want.
Give me the courage I need. I’m going out of my mind with desire, and I don’t quite know what it is that I desire so much.