The Conflict [41]
``The instant I saw your face I knew you were here to flirt with Miss Gordon.''
``Oh, no, Miss Hastings,'' protested Selma with quaint intensity of seriousness, ``I assure you he was not flirting. He was telling me about the reform movement he and his friends are organizing.''
``That is his way of flirting,'' said Jane. ``Every animal has its own way--and an elephant's way is different from a mosquito's.''
Selma was eyeing Hull dubiously. It was bad enough for him to have taken her time in a well-meaning attempt to enlighten her as to a new phase of local politics; to take her time, to waste it, in flirting--that was too exasperating!
``Miss Hastings has a sense of humor that runs riot at times,'' said Hull.
``You can't save yourself, Davy,'' mocked Jane. ``Come along. Miss Gordon has no time for either of us.''
``I do want YOU to stay,'' she said to Jane. ``But, unfortunately, with Victor away----'' She looked disconsolately at the half-finished page of copy.
``I came only to snatch Davy away,'' said Jane.
``Next thing we know, he'll be one of Mr. Dorn's lieutenants.''
Thus Jane escaped without having to betray why she had come. In the street she kept up her raillery. ``And a WORKING girl, Davy!
What would our friends say! And you who are always boasting of your fastidiousness! Flirting with a girl who--I've seen her three times, and each time she has had on exactly the same plain, cheap little dress.''
There was a nastiness, a vulgarity in this that was as unworthy of Jane as are all the unlovely emotions of us who are always sweet and refined when we are our true selves--but have a bad habit of only too often not being what we flatter ourselves is our true selves. Jane was growing angry as she, away from Selma, resumed her normal place in the world and her normal point of view. Davy Hull belonged to her; he had no right to be hanging about another, anyway--especially an attractive woman. Her anger was not lessened by Davy's retort. Said he:
``Her dress may have been the same. But her face wasn't--and her mind wasn't. Those things are more difficult to change than a dress.''
She was so angry that she did not take warning from this reminder that Davy was by no means merely a tedious retailer of stale commonplaces. She said with fine irony--and with no show of anger: ``It is always a shock to a lady to realize how coarse men are--how they don't discriminate.''
Davy laughed. ``Women get their rank from men,'' said he coolly.
``In themselves they have none. That's the philosophy of the peculiarity you've noted.''
This truth, so galling to a lady, silenced Jane, made her bite her lips with rage. ``I beg your pardon,'' she finally said. ``I didn't realize that you were in love with Selma.''
``Yes, I am in love with her,'' was Davy's astounding reply. ``She's the noblest and simplest creature I've ever met.''
``You don't mean you want to marry her!'' exclaimed Jane, so amazed that she for the moment lost sight of her own personal interest in this affair.
Davy looked at her sadly, and a little contemptuously.
``What a poor opinion at bottom you women--your sort of women--have of woman,'' said he.
``What a poor opinion of men you mean,'' retorted she. ``After a little experience of them a girl--even a girl--learns that they are incapable of any emotion that isn't gross.''
``Don't be so ladylike, Jane,'' said Hull.
Miss Hastings was recovering control of herself. She took a new tack. ``You haven't asked her yet?''
``Hardly. This is the second time I've seen her. I suspected that she was the woman for me the moment I saw her. To-day I confirmed my idea. She is all that I thought--and more. And, Jane, I know that you appreciate her, too.''
Jane now saw that Davy was being thus abruptly and speedily confiding because he had decided it was the best way out of his entanglement with her. Behind his coolness she could see an uneasy watchfulness--the fear that she might try to hold him. Up boiled her rage--the higher because she
``Oh, no, Miss Hastings,'' protested Selma with quaint intensity of seriousness, ``I assure you he was not flirting. He was telling me about the reform movement he and his friends are organizing.''
``That is his way of flirting,'' said Jane. ``Every animal has its own way--and an elephant's way is different from a mosquito's.''
Selma was eyeing Hull dubiously. It was bad enough for him to have taken her time in a well-meaning attempt to enlighten her as to a new phase of local politics; to take her time, to waste it, in flirting--that was too exasperating!
``Miss Hastings has a sense of humor that runs riot at times,'' said Hull.
``You can't save yourself, Davy,'' mocked Jane. ``Come along. Miss Gordon has no time for either of us.''
``I do want YOU to stay,'' she said to Jane. ``But, unfortunately, with Victor away----'' She looked disconsolately at the half-finished page of copy.
``I came only to snatch Davy away,'' said Jane.
``Next thing we know, he'll be one of Mr. Dorn's lieutenants.''
Thus Jane escaped without having to betray why she had come. In the street she kept up her raillery. ``And a WORKING girl, Davy!
What would our friends say! And you who are always boasting of your fastidiousness! Flirting with a girl who--I've seen her three times, and each time she has had on exactly the same plain, cheap little dress.''
There was a nastiness, a vulgarity in this that was as unworthy of Jane as are all the unlovely emotions of us who are always sweet and refined when we are our true selves--but have a bad habit of only too often not being what we flatter ourselves is our true selves. Jane was growing angry as she, away from Selma, resumed her normal place in the world and her normal point of view. Davy Hull belonged to her; he had no right to be hanging about another, anyway--especially an attractive woman. Her anger was not lessened by Davy's retort. Said he:
``Her dress may have been the same. But her face wasn't--and her mind wasn't. Those things are more difficult to change than a dress.''
She was so angry that she did not take warning from this reminder that Davy was by no means merely a tedious retailer of stale commonplaces. She said with fine irony--and with no show of anger: ``It is always a shock to a lady to realize how coarse men are--how they don't discriminate.''
Davy laughed. ``Women get their rank from men,'' said he coolly.
``In themselves they have none. That's the philosophy of the peculiarity you've noted.''
This truth, so galling to a lady, silenced Jane, made her bite her lips with rage. ``I beg your pardon,'' she finally said. ``I didn't realize that you were in love with Selma.''
``Yes, I am in love with her,'' was Davy's astounding reply. ``She's the noblest and simplest creature I've ever met.''
``You don't mean you want to marry her!'' exclaimed Jane, so amazed that she for the moment lost sight of her own personal interest in this affair.
Davy looked at her sadly, and a little contemptuously.
``What a poor opinion at bottom you women--your sort of women--have of woman,'' said he.
``What a poor opinion of men you mean,'' retorted she. ``After a little experience of them a girl--even a girl--learns that they are incapable of any emotion that isn't gross.''
``Don't be so ladylike, Jane,'' said Hull.
Miss Hastings was recovering control of herself. She took a new tack. ``You haven't asked her yet?''
``Hardly. This is the second time I've seen her. I suspected that she was the woman for me the moment I saw her. To-day I confirmed my idea. She is all that I thought--and more. And, Jane, I know that you appreciate her, too.''
Jane now saw that Davy was being thus abruptly and speedily confiding because he had decided it was the best way out of his entanglement with her. Behind his coolness she could see an uneasy watchfulness--the fear that she might try to hold him. Up boiled her rage--the higher because she