The only problem that now confronted us was divorce! I would ask Penton
to divorce Hildreth, and then Hildreth and I would marry.
But why even that? Was not this the greatest opportunity in the world
for Hildreth and me to put to practical test our theories ... proclaim
ourselves for Free Love,--as Mary Wollstonecraft and the philosopher
Godwin had done, a century or so before us?
* * * * *
The following day Ruth and I ate breakfast together, alone. I had
behaved with unusual sedateness, had showed an aplomb I had never before
evidenced. Full manhood, belated, had at last come to me.
With more than usual satisfaction I drank my coffee, holding the cup
with my hands around it like a child ... warming my fingers, which are
nearly always cold in the morning....
Then, while Ruth sat opposite me, eyeing me curiously, I began to sing,
half-aloud, to myself.
A silence fell. We exchanged very few words.
And it was our custom, when together, Ruth and I, to hold long
discussions concerning the methods and technique of the English poets,
especially the earlier ones.
This morning Baxter's secretary rose and left part of her breakfast
uneaten, hurrying into the house as if to avoid something which she had
seen and dreaded.
* * * * *