"Of course the fault could not all be on Hildreth's side."
"No, they're both a couple of ninnies ... but there's this to be said
for Penton, he's trying to get something done for the betterment of
humanity ... while Hildreth's only a parasite."
"And Darrie--how about her? What does she do but loaf around in a more
conventional manner, talking about her social prestige, the dress of one
of her ancestresses in the Boston Museum, her aristocratic affiliations
... how many and how faithful those negro servants of hers are, down
South ... between the two, Hildreth has the livest brain, and puts on
less."
"Take care! You'll be falling in love with Penton Baxter's wife yet!"
Our talk was halted by Darrie's re-appearance. Hildreth came furtively
back, too, from the little cottage, like a guilty child. She apologized
to Darrie, and her apology was accepted, and, in a few minutes we were
talking ahead as gaily as before....
We rehearsed Hildreth in her part as Titania ... for that was the part
she was to play in _The Mid-Summer Night's Dream_, that the Actors'
Guild of the colony was to put on in their outdoor theatre, a week from
that afternoon ... Hildreth insisted on dressing for the part ... in her
green, skin tights ... letting her black hair flow free ... wearing even
her diadem, as fairy queen. She had a good, musical voice ... a way of
speaking with startled shyness that was engaging.
But Hildreth stuck to her original intention of moving to the cottage.
She had Mrs. Jones move her things for her.
As I sat in the library of the big house reading Tolstoy's _Anna
Karenina_, I overheard Darrie telling Ruth in the bathroom that Hildreth
would not have insisted on donning her tights, if she had not been proud
of her symmetrical legs, and had not wanted to show them off to me.
Between the three women, nevertheless, Hildreth was easily my choice
already ... Darrie was lovely, but talked like a débutante from morning
till night....
Ruth had too much of the quietist in her, the non-resistent. She had a
vast fund of scholarship, knew English poetry from the ground up ... but
her bringing that knowledge to me as an attraction was like presenting a
peacock's feather to a bird of paradise....
However, when Penton came home that night, he found us all in huge good
humour. I had just received a check from Derek, and had insisted on
spending most of it for a spread for all of us, including a whopping
beefsteak.
And we ate and joked and enjoyed ourselves just like the bourgeoisie.
* * * * *
If Penton only had had a sense of humour ... but this I never detected
in him.
Even at singing classes, which I attended one evening with him ... his
whole entourage, in fact....
With solemn face he sang high, and always off key, till the three women
had to stuff their handkerchiefs in their mouths to keep from laughing
at him before his face....
After class, we strolled home by a devious path, through the moonlight.
This time Ruth walked ahead with little Dan, Hildreth with her husband,
Penton,--Darrie with me....
"Drag back a little, Johnnie ... Penton and Hildreth are having a
private heart-to-heart talk, I can tell by their voices."
We hung back till they disappeared around a bend. We were alone. Darrie
began to laugh and laugh and laugh.... "Oh, it's so funny, I shall die
laughing"....
* * * * *
"Why--why, what's the matter!"
For I saw tears streaming down the girl's face in the moonlight.
"It's so awful," replied Darrie, now crying quietly, "--so tragic ...
yet I had to laugh ... I'm so sorry for Penton ... for both of them....
"Penton _is_ such a jackass, Johnnie," she gulped, "and God knows, as I
do, he's such an honest, good man ... helping poor people all over the
country ... really fighting the fight of the down-trodden and the
oppressed."