The Conflict [43]
Davy dear?'' Then, while the confusion following this blow was at its height, she added: ``You'll remember one of your chief arguments for my accepting you was ambition. You didn't think it low then--did you?''
Hull was one of the dry-skinned people. But if he had been sweating profusely he would have looked and would have been less wretched than burning up in the smothered heat of his misery.
They were nearing Martha's gates. Jane said: ``Yes, Davy, you've got a good chance. And as soon as she gets used to our way of living, she'll make you a good wife.'' She laughed gayly.
``She'll not be quite so pretty when she settles down and takes on flesh. I wonder how she'll look in fine clothes and jewels.''
She measured Hull's stature with a critical eye. ``She's only about half as tall as you. How funny you'll look together!'' With sudden soberness and sweetness, ``But, seriously, David, I'm proud of your courage in taking a girl for herself regardless of her surroundings. So few men would be willing to face the ridicule and the criticism, and all the social difficulties.'' She nodded encouragingly. ``Go in and win! You can count on my friendship--for I'm in love with her myself.''
She left him standing dazedly, looking up and down the street as if it were some strange and pine-beset highway in a foreign land.
After taking a few steps she returned to the gates and called him: ``I forgot to ask do you want me to regard what you've told me as confidential? I was thinking of telling Martha and Hugo, and it occurred to me that you might not like it.''
``Please don't say anything about it,'' said he with panicky eagerness. ``You see--nothing's settled yet.''
``Oh, she'll accept you.''
``But I haven't even asked her,'' pleaded Hull.
``Oh--all right--as you please.''
When she was safely within doors she dropped to a chair and burst out laughing. It was part of Jane's passion for the sense of triumph over the male sex to felt that she had made a ``perfect jumping jack of a fool'' of David Hull. ``And I rather think,'' said she to herself, ``that he'll soon be back where he belongs.'' This with a glance at the tall heels of the slippers on the good-looking feet she was thrusting out for her own inspection. ``How absurd for him to imagine he could do anything unconventional. Is there any coward anywhere so cowardly as an American conventional man? No wonder I hate to think of marrying one of them. But--I suppose I'll have to do it some day. What's a woman to do? She's GOT to marry.''
So pleased with herself was she that she behaved with unusual forbearance toward Martha whose conduct of late had been most trying. Not Martha's sometimes peevish, sometimes plaintive criticisms of her; these she did not mind. But Martha's way of ordering her own life. Jane, moving about in the world with a good mind eager to improve, had got a horror of a woman's going to pieces--and that was what Martha was doing.
``I'm losing my looks rapidly,'' was her constant complaint. As she had just passed thirty there was, in Jane's opinion, not the smallest excuse for this. The remedy, the preventive, was obvious--diet and exercise. But Martha, being lazy and self-indulgent and not imaginative enough to foresee to what a pass a few years more of lounging and stuffing would bring her, regarded exercise as unladylike and dieting as unhealthful. She would not weaken her system by taking less than was demanded by ``nature's infallible guide, the healthy appetite.'' She would not give up the venerable and aristocratic tradition that a lady should ever be reposeful.
``Another year or so,'' warned Jane, ``and you'll be as steatopygous as the bride of a Hottentot chief.''
``What does steat--that word mean?'' said Martha suspiciously.
``Look in the dictionary,'' said Jane. ``Its synonyms aren't used by refined people.''
``I knew it was something insulting,'' said Martha with an injured sniff.
The only concessions Martha would make to the latter-day craze of women for youthfulness were
Hull was one of the dry-skinned people. But if he had been sweating profusely he would have looked and would have been less wretched than burning up in the smothered heat of his misery.
They were nearing Martha's gates. Jane said: ``Yes, Davy, you've got a good chance. And as soon as she gets used to our way of living, she'll make you a good wife.'' She laughed gayly.
``She'll not be quite so pretty when she settles down and takes on flesh. I wonder how she'll look in fine clothes and jewels.''
She measured Hull's stature with a critical eye. ``She's only about half as tall as you. How funny you'll look together!'' With sudden soberness and sweetness, ``But, seriously, David, I'm proud of your courage in taking a girl for herself regardless of her surroundings. So few men would be willing to face the ridicule and the criticism, and all the social difficulties.'' She nodded encouragingly. ``Go in and win! You can count on my friendship--for I'm in love with her myself.''
She left him standing dazedly, looking up and down the street as if it were some strange and pine-beset highway in a foreign land.
After taking a few steps she returned to the gates and called him: ``I forgot to ask do you want me to regard what you've told me as confidential? I was thinking of telling Martha and Hugo, and it occurred to me that you might not like it.''
``Please don't say anything about it,'' said he with panicky eagerness. ``You see--nothing's settled yet.''
``Oh, she'll accept you.''
``But I haven't even asked her,'' pleaded Hull.
``Oh--all right--as you please.''
When she was safely within doors she dropped to a chair and burst out laughing. It was part of Jane's passion for the sense of triumph over the male sex to felt that she had made a ``perfect jumping jack of a fool'' of David Hull. ``And I rather think,'' said she to herself, ``that he'll soon be back where he belongs.'' This with a glance at the tall heels of the slippers on the good-looking feet she was thrusting out for her own inspection. ``How absurd for him to imagine he could do anything unconventional. Is there any coward anywhere so cowardly as an American conventional man? No wonder I hate to think of marrying one of them. But--I suppose I'll have to do it some day. What's a woman to do? She's GOT to marry.''
So pleased with herself was she that she behaved with unusual forbearance toward Martha whose conduct of late had been most trying. Not Martha's sometimes peevish, sometimes plaintive criticisms of her; these she did not mind. But Martha's way of ordering her own life. Jane, moving about in the world with a good mind eager to improve, had got a horror of a woman's going to pieces--and that was what Martha was doing.
``I'm losing my looks rapidly,'' was her constant complaint. As she had just passed thirty there was, in Jane's opinion, not the smallest excuse for this. The remedy, the preventive, was obvious--diet and exercise. But Martha, being lazy and self-indulgent and not imaginative enough to foresee to what a pass a few years more of lounging and stuffing would bring her, regarded exercise as unladylike and dieting as unhealthful. She would not weaken her system by taking less than was demanded by ``nature's infallible guide, the healthy appetite.'' She would not give up the venerable and aristocratic tradition that a lady should ever be reposeful.
``Another year or so,'' warned Jane, ``and you'll be as steatopygous as the bride of a Hottentot chief.''
``What does steat--that word mean?'' said Martha suspiciously.
``Look in the dictionary,'' said Jane. ``Its synonyms aren't used by refined people.''
``I knew it was something insulting,'' said Martha with an injured sniff.
The only concessions Martha would make to the latter-day craze of women for youthfulness were