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family. It’s about an Irish family on the South Side of Chicago.”
    “Will you lend it to me when you’re finished?”
    “I got it from the library. I’ll renew it and give it to you next week.”
    She looked out the window. They were nearly at her stop. “I get off here.”
    He got up with her. “I’ll walk you to your house.”
    “You don’t have to do that. I’ll be all right.”
    “It’s almost midnight,” he said firmly. “I’ll walk you home.”
    “But you’ll have to wait a half hour for another bus.”
    “That’s okay.”
    At her door she turned to him. “Thank you very much, Martin.”
    He shook her hand. “Thank you, JeriLee. Don’t forget you said we could go to a movie.”
    “I won’t forget.”
    “And I won’t forget to give you the book,” he said. “Good night.”
    “Good night, Martin.” She watched him go down the porch steps, then turned and went into the house.
    Her parents were in the living room watching television. They looked up as she came in. “I didn’t hear Bernie’s car,” her mother said.
    “I took the bus. I didn’t hang around for the dance.”
    “Are you all right, dear?” Veronica asked.
    “I’m okay, Mom. Just a little tired, that’s all.”
    “Did you come home alone?” John asked. “I don’t know whether I like that this late at night. Next time maybe you ought to call and I can come and get you.”
    “I wasn’t alone. Martin Finnegan saw me to the door.” She sensed a change in her father’s expression. “He really was very nice. Very polite.”
    “He may be, but his family has a bad reputation. His father hasn’t worked in years and he and his wife spend all their time in bars. I don’t know how they manage to get along.”
    “Martin isn’t like that. Do you know he works at Lassky’s every morning as well as at the Beach Club?”
    “That’s very nice, but all the same I would be careful about seeing too much of him. I don’t want people to think I approve of a family like that.”
    “I don’t see what business it is who we see or don’t.”
    “When you’re a banker, everything you do is your neighbor’s business. How else do you think you can get them to place their faith in you?”
    She thought of Mr. Carson and what Martin had told her. For a moment she was tempted to mention it to her father but then she kept silent. “I’m tired,” she said. “I’m going to take a hot bath and go to bed.”
    She kissed her parents good night and went up the stairs to her room. She started the water in the tub and began to undress. She thought first of Martin and then of Walt. Again the peculiar warmth flowed through her and her legs felt strangely weak.
    She stared at her naked body in the mirror over the dresser. The whiteness of her breasts contrasted with the tan of the rest of her body. Her nipples hurt and seemed to be trying to burst from her breasts. Wonderingly, she touched them. An excitement radiated through her body, culminating in a flush of heat in her pubis. She put a hand on the dresser for support.
    She lowered herself into the warm tub and leaned back. There was an aching in her groin and a prickly sensation in her breasts that she had never felt before. The warm water flowed around her soothingly. Slowly she began to lather herself with soap. Her hand moved down her body, increasing her painful pleasure. Almost as if in a dream, she touched her pubis, the soap turning to lather on her fur. She leaned back, closing her eyes as the warm excitement mounted in her. The movements of her hand became almost automatic.
    As Walt’s face appeared before her all the muscles in her groin expanded, then contracted in an exquisite, agonizing flash of white fire. She almost screamed aloud in the throes of her first orgasm. Then it passed, leaving her limp, contented, yet strangely empty.
    Is this what love is really like? she wondered to herself. And even into the night, while she lay sleepless in her bed, she kept on