Miss Lonelyhearts by Nathanael West Page A

relieve..."
    When Miss Lonelyhearts saw Betty get up to go, he followed her out of the apartment. She too should
see the rock he had become.
    Shrike did not miss him until he
discovered the letter on the floor. He picked it up, tried to find Miss Lonelyhearts , then addressed the gathering again.
    "The master has
disappeared," he announced, "but do not despair. I am still with you.
I am his disciple and I shall lead you in the way of attainment. First let me
read you this letter which is addressed directly to the master."
    He took the letter out of its
envelope, as though he had not read it previously, and began: "'What kind
of a dirty skunk are you? When I got home with the gin, I found my wife crying
on the floor and the house full of neighbors. She said that you tried to rape
her you dirty skunk and they wanted to get the police but I said that I'd do
the job myself you...'
    "My, oh my, I really can't
bring myself to utter such vile language. I'll skip the swearing and go on. 'So
that's what all your fine speeches come to, you bastard, you ought to have your
brains blown out.' It's signed, 'Doyle.'
    "Well, well, so the master is
another Rasputin. How this shakes one's faith! But I can't believe it. I won't
believe it. The master can do no wrong. My faith is unshaken. This is only one
more attempt against him by the devil. He has spent his life struggling with
the arch fiend for our sakes, and he shall triumph. I mean Miss Lonelyhearts , not the devil.
    "The gospel
according to Shrike. Let me tell you about his life. It unrolls before
me like a scroll. First, in the dawn of childhood, radiant with pure innocence,
like a rain-washed star, he wends his weary way to the University of Hard
Knocks. Next, a youth, he dashes into the night from the bed
of his first whore. And then, the man, the man Miss Lonelyhearts --struggling
valiantly to realize a high ideal, his course shaped by a proud aim. But, alas! cold and scornful, the world heaps obstacle after
obstacle in his path; deems he the goal at hand, a voice of thunder bids him
'Halt!' 'Let each hindrance be thy ladder,' thinks he. 'Higher, even higher,
mount!' And so he climbs, rung by weary rung, and so he urges himself on,
breathless with hallowed fire. And so..."

 
MISS LONELYHEARTS AND THE PARTY DRESS
     
    When Miss Lonelyhearts left Shrike's apartment, he found Betty in the hall waiting for the elevator.
She had on a light-blue dress that was very much a party dress. She dressed for
things, he realized.
    Even the rock was touched by this
realization. No; it was not the rock that was touched. The rock was still
perfect. It was his mind that was touched, the instrument with which he knew
the rock.
    He approached Betty with a smile,
for his mind was free and clear. The things that muddied it had precipitated
out into the rock.
    But she did not smile back
"What are you grinning at?" she snapped.
    "Oh, I'm sorry," he said.
"I didn't mean anything."
    They entered the elevator together.
When they reached the street, he took her arm although she tried to jerk away.
    "Won't you have a soda,
please?" he begged. The party dress had given his simplified mind its cue
and he delighted in the boy-and-girl argument that followed.
    "No; I'm going home."
    "Oh, come on," he said,
pulling her towards a soda fountain. As she went, she unconsciously exaggerated
her little-girl-in-a-party-dress air.
    They both had strawberry sodas. They
sucked the pink drops up through straws, she pouting at his smile, neither one
of them conscious of being cute.
    "Why are you mad at me, Betty?
I didn't do anything. It was Shrike's idea and he did all the talking."
    "Because you
are a fool."
    "I've quit the Miss Lonelyhearts job. I haven't been in the office for almost a
week."
    "What are you going to
do?"
    "I'm going to look for a job in
an advertising agency."
    He was not deliberately lying. He
was only trying to say what she wanted to hear. The party dress was so gay and
charming, light blue with a frothy