Darrie came out, followed immediately by Daniel. Daniel was in an
obstreperous mood ... he cried out that I must be his "telegraph pole,"
that he would be a lineman, and climb me. I felt an affection for him
that I had not known before. I played with him, letting him climb up my
leg.
He finished, a-straddle my shoulders. I reached up and sat him still
higher, on my head. And he waved his arms and shouted, as if making
signals to someone far off.
Darrie laughed.
"Which would you rather have, a son or a daughter?" she asked me.
"I don't know," I replied, letting Daniel slide down, "but I think I'd
rather have a daughter ... the next generation will see a great age of
freedom for women ... feminism....
"Then it would be a grand thing, too, to have a beautiful daughter to go
about with ... and I would be old and silver-haired and
benignant-looking ... and people would say, as they saw the two of us:
"'There goes the poet, John Gregory, and his daughter ... isn't she a
beautiful girl!'
"And she would be a great actress."
* * * * *
Penton came forth from the big house ... he poised tentatively like a
queer bird on the verge of a long flight ... then he wavered rapidly
down the steps.
"--slept late!... has the mail come yet?... where's Ruth?"
"Isn't she in the house?" I queried.
"I saw her stepping out at the back door a minute ago" ... said Darrie.
"We had breakfast together ... I...."
"I hope she doesn't stay away long ... I have an article on Blue Laws as
a Reactionary Weapon, that I want to dictate for a magazine ...--one of
her moods, I suppose!"
I looked the little, large-browed man over almost impersonally. I saw
him as from far away. He came out very clear to me.
I found a profound pity for him waking in my heart, together with a
sort of contempt.
"And where's Hildreth?"
"Not up yet I presume," replied Darrie.
* * * * *
I excused myself and hurried back to my tent ... where, instead of
settling down to work on the third act of my play, I lay prone on my
cot, day-dreaming of the future. How beautiful it would be, now that I
had at last found my life-mate!
I thanked God that nothing trivial was in my heart to mar the
stupendousness of my love, my first real passion for a woman!
* * * * *
"Johnnie!"