{"id":"01KG07A9PFFA17XB0R278TMQ18","cid":"bafkreiefql3dlfe4jqh35zgjzpvjounjjblyrvqamufz5kyf7mfnfw2ju4","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":2787,"extracted_at":"2026-01-27T17:16:18.880Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 4","source_file":"01KFYTG9MG93RTB6YAW34V48XG","start_line":2740,"text":" 2623\tall. Anyway, the one next to me dropped hers on the floor and I reached down and picked\n 2624\tit up for her. I asked her if she was out collecting money for charity and all. She said no.\n 2625\tShe said she couldn't get it in her suitcase when she was packing it and she was just\n 2626\tcarrying it. She had a pretty nice smile when she looked at you. She had a big nose, and\n 2627\tshe had on those glasses with sort of iron rims that aren't too attractive, but she had a\n 2628\thelluva kind face. \"I thought if you were taking up a collection,\" I told her, \"I could make\n 2629\ta small contribution. You could keep the money for when you do take up a collection.\"\n 2630\t\"Oh, how very kind of you,\" she said, and the other one, her friend, looked over at\n 2631\tme. The other one was reading a little black book while she drank her coffee. It looked\n 2632\tlike a Bible, but it was too skinny. It was a Bible-type book, though. All the two of them\n 2633\twere eating for breakfast was toast and coffee. That depressed me. I hate it if I'm eating\n 2634\tbacon and eggs or something and somebody else is only eating toast and coffee.\n 2635\tThey let me give them ten bucks as a contribution. They kept asking me if I was\n 2636\tsure I could afford it and all. I told them I had quite a bit of money with me, but they\n 2637\tdidn't seem to believe me. They took it, though, finally. The both of them kept thanking\n 2638\tme so much it was embarrassing. I swung the conversation around to general topics and\n 2639\tasked them where they were going. They said they were schoolteachers and that they'd\n 2640\tjust come from Chicago and that they were going to start teaching at some convent on\n 2641\t168th Street or 186th Street or one of those streets way the hell uptown. The one next to\n 2642\tme, with the iron glasses, said she taught English and her friend taught history and\n\n\n 2643\tAmerican government. Then I started wondering like a bastard what the one sitting next\n 2644\tto me, that taught English, thought about, being a nun and all, when she read certain\n 2645\tbooks for English. Books not necessarily with a lot of sexy stuff in them, but books with\n 2646\tlovers and all in them. Take old Eustacia Vye, in The Return of the Native by Thomas\n 2647\tHardy. She wasn't too sexy or anything, but even so you can't help wondering what a nun\n 2648\tmaybe thinks about when she reads about old Eustacia. I didn't say anything, though,\n 2649\tnaturally. All I said was English was my best subject.\n 2650\t\"Oh, really? Oh, I'm so glad!\" the one with the glasses, that taught English, said.\n 2651\t\"What have you read this year? I'd be very interested to know.\" She was really nice.\n 2652\t\"Well, most of the time we were on the Anglo-Saxons. Beowulf, and old Grendel,\n 2653\tand Lord Randal My Son, and all those things. But we had to read outside books for extra\n 2654\tcredit once in a while. I read The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy, and Romeo and\n 2655\tJuliet and Julius--\"\n 2656\t\"Oh, Romeo and Juliet! Lovely! Didn't you just love it?\" She certainly didn't\n 2657\tsound much like a nun.\n 2658\t\"Yes. I did. I liked it a lot. There were a few things I didn't like about it, but it was\n 2659\tquite moving, on the whole.\"\n 2660\t\"What didn't you like about it? Can you remember?\" To tell you the truth, it was\n 2661\tsort of embarrassing, in a way, to be talking about Romeo and Juliet with her. I mean that\n 2662\tplay gets pretty sexy in some parts, and she was a nun and all, but she asked me, so I\n 2663\tdiscussed it with her for a while. \"Well, I'm not too crazy about Romeo and Juliet,\" I said.\n 2664\t\"I mean I like them, but--I don't know. They get pretty annoying sometimes. I mean I felt\n 2665\tmuch sorrier when old Mercutio got killed than when Romeo and Juliet did. The think is,\n 2666\tI never liked Romeo too much after Mercutio gets stabbed by that other man--Juliet's\n 2667\tcousin--what's his name?\"\n 2668\t\"Tybalt.\"","title":"Chunk 4"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG072JK9JYJXQ6SAQ846BAXY","peer_label":"15","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KFXT0KM64XT6K8W52TDEE0YS","peer_label":"More Classics","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"}],"ver":1,"created_at":"2026-01-27T17:16:43.860Z","ts":"2026-01-27T17:16:43.860Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}