the curb in the sky summary
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When Charlie Deshler announced that he was going to marry Dorothy,
someone said he would lose his mind posthaste. “No,” said a wit who knew
them both, “post hoc.” Dorothy had begun, when quite young, to finish
sentences for people. Sometimes she finished them wrongly, which annoyed
the person who was speaking, and sometimes she finished them correctly,
which annoyed the speaker even more.
“When William Howard Taft was--” some guest in Dorothy’s family home
would begin. “President!” Dorothy would pipe up. The speaker may have meant
to say “President” or he might have meant to say “Young” or “Chief Justice
of the Supreme Court of the United States.” In any case, he would shortly
put on his hat and go home. Like most parents, Dorothy’s parents did not
seem to be conscious that her mannerism was a nuisance. Very likely they
thought that it was cute, or even bright. It is even probable that when
Dorothy’s mother first said, “Come, Dorothy, eat your –“ and Dorothy said,
“Spinach, dear,” the former telephones Dorothy’s father at the office and
told him about it, and he told everybody he met that day about it – and the
next day and the day after.
When Dorothy grew up she became quite pretty and so even more of a
menace. Gentlemen became attracted to her and then attached to her.
Emotionally she stirred them, but mentally she soon began to wear them
down. Even in her late teens she began correcting their English. “Not ‘was’
Arthur,” she would say, “’were.’ ‘Were prepared.’ See?” Most of her admirers
tolerated this habit because of their interest in her lovely person, but as
time went on and her interest in them remained more instructive than