Carmella Commands
Carmella could remember of this later conversation was that her hostess had asked silly questions about sewing and lace-making, and that Dixon took her home. She could not remember speaking to Dixon, all the way.
To her father that evening she recounted the interview, without mentioning bus lines or annexations.
“Eight thousand, did he say?” asked Tommaso.
“Eight thousand,” repeated Carmella.
Tommaso thought a few moments before answering. Then he said:
“Tell him he is a fool, but I take it.”
“At eleven-thirty, Monday?” asked Carmella.
“I can arrange it then.”
Carmella danced her happy way to bed that night. The anxiety that had clouded her way through recent days was changed to an almost overwhelming reaction of joy.
Before she went to bed she knelt. Her prayer consisted of a promise to God to confess to Father Carbone how she had cheated her father Tommaso into four thousand dollars more than he had expected.
To confess to Tommaso himself was beyond the realm of imagined possibility.
And that night she dreamed of pearl necklaces.
[97]
