putterings 397 < 398 > 399 index
he would have done it from the other end, just put it quietly aside
But no, he would have done it from the other end. That was the real way to do it.
Some summer evening like this, say, when Adelaide was sewing on buttons, upon the porch, and Sister was playing somewhere about. A pleasant, quiet evening it must be, with the shadows lying long on the street that led from their house to the station. He would put down the garden shears, or the hose, or whatever he happened to be puttering with — not throw the thing down, you know, just put it quietly aside — and walk out of the gate and down the street, and that would be the last they’d see of him. He would time it so that he’d must make the 6:03 for the city comfortably.
ex Dorothy Parker, “Such a Pretty Little Picture,” in The Smart Set (“The Aristocrat among Magazines”) 49:4 (December 1922) : 73-78 (76)
U California copy/scan (via hathitrust) : link
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not clear whether this story was included in early collections of Parker’s short pieces; it speaks to me.
Dorothy Parker (1893-1967)
wikipedia : link