she looked like a beautiful butterfly escaped from the heart of spring... She was Nana in everything — save that new face...
I cried out joyfully, trying to hide the quickening of my breath:
"Nana! What a wonderful chance! Listen — what do you say to a quiet hour in some café?"
She smiled sweetly and said with forced gaiety:
"Splendid! A cup of coffee for you and a glass of juice for me"...
We walked in silence until we sat facing each other, and I said:
"Nana, my gift to you is still in my pocket — here it is"...
She opened the box and drew out the bracelet, looking at it in silent scrutiny; then she raised her head and said slowly, like one recalling the details of a bygone dream:
"A gold bracelet, with gazelles swinging from it, their eyes set with pearls... So you promised
years ago, and here you are keeping your promise, and not forgetting it." Then she added in a broken voice:
"I had almost forgotten, Raji — forgive me"...
The mask fell swiftly; my heart leapt, and I reached out my hand to the bracelet, took it from her, and wound it around her round ivory wrist, whispering:
"I have not forgotten a single one of the words I used to say to you. I dreamed of what I had said, and of what I would say and you would say. So talk to me, Nana, as you used to do, and without this frightful stiffness that is a stranger to me and to you. Tell me what has become of Nana, and tell me what they have done to you; your stiffness bewilders me and blinds me and stirs weeping in my heart"...
Her black eyes turned; then tears clouded them, and she said:
"Since that night — the night of the party — I have been like one who lost his memory and finds it again. You spoke to me as though you were setting before my sight something lost and forgotten, whose existence or place I had never known... Do you know what I did at daybreak, when the last of the guests had gone? I went to the rose tree and sprinkled it with all the tears my eyes had hidden away; then I began picking roses and pinning them around the opening of my dress, covering my breast and my neck, drunk on the fragrance, imagining you standing before me, smiling, content, stretching out your hands to me, the light of your eyes brighter than the light of dawn... I waited for you to come back the next day, and you did not come. I asked my father about you, and he
Crisco
Delicious taste — quick digestion
The pure vegetable shortening
with no trace of fat or grease in it
Crisco = the finest and purest vegetable shortening
For all foods, light fried dishes, and every kind of sweets