He was critical about women. A single defect a thick ankle, a hoarse voice, a glass eye was enough to make him utterly indifferent. And here for the first time in his life he was beside a girl who seemed to him the incarnation of physical perfection.
Are you from the East? asked Kismine with charming interest.
No, answered John simply. Im from Hades.
Either she had never heard of Hades, or she could think of no pleasant comment to make upon it, for she did not discuss it further.
Im going East to school this fall, she said. Dyou think Ill like it? Im going to New York to Miss Bulges. Its very strict, but you see over the weekends Im going to live at home with the family in our New York house, because father heard that the girls had to go walking two by two.
Your father wants you to be proud, observed John.
We are, she answered, her eyes shining with dignity. None of us has ever been punished. Father said we never should be. Once when my sister Jasmine was a little girl she pushed him downstairs and he just got up and limped away.
Mother was well, a little startled, continued Kismine, when she heard that you were from from where you are from, you know. She said that when she was a young girl but then, you see, shes a Spaniard and old-fashioned.
Do you spend much time out here? asked John, to conceal the fact that he was somewhat hurt by this remark. It seemed an unkind allusion to his provincialism.
Percy and Jasmine and I are here every summer, but next summer Jasmine is going to Newport.[35] Shes coming out in London a year from this fall. Shell be presented at court.
Do you know, began John hesitantly, youre much more sophisticated than I thought you were when I first saw you?
Oh, no, Im not, she exclaimed hurriedly. Oh, I wouldnt think of being. I think that sophisticated young people are terribly common, dont you? Im not at all, really. If you say I am, Im going to cry.
She was so distressed that her lip was trembling. John was impelled to protest:
I didnt mean that; I only said it to tease you.
Because I wouldnt mind if I were, she persisted. but Im not. Im very innocent and girlish. I never smoke, or drink, or read anything except poetry. I know scarcely any mathematics or chemistry. I dress very simply in fact, I scarcely dress at all. I think sophisticated is the last thing you can say about me. I believe that girls ought to enjoy their youths in a wholesome way.
I do, too, said John, heartily.
Kismine was cheerful again. She smiled at him, and a still-born tear dripped from the corner of one blue eye.
I like you, she whispered, intimately. Are you going to spend all your time with Percy while youre here, or will you be nice to me? Just think Im absolutely fresh ground. Ive never had a boy in love with me in all my life. Ive never been allowed even to see boys alone except Percy. I came all the way out here into this grove hoping to run into you, where the family wouldnt be around.
Deeply flattered, John bowed from the hips as he had been taught at dancing school in Hades.
Wed better go now, said Kismine sweetly. I have to be with mother at eleven. You havent asked me to kiss you once. I thought boys always did that nowadays.
John drew himself up proudly.
Some of them do, he answered, but not me. Girls dont do that sort of thing in Hades.
Side by side they walked back toward the house.
VI
John stood facing Mr. Braddock Washington in the full sunlight. The elder man was about forty with a proud, vacuous face, intelligent eyes, and a robust figure. In the mornings he smelt of horses the best horses. He carried a plain walking-stick of gray birch with a single large opal for a grip. He and Percy were showing John around.
The slaves quarters are there. His walking-stick indicated a cloister of marble on their left that ran in graceful Gothic along the side of the mountain. In my youth I was distracted for a while from the business of life by a period of absurd idealism. During that time they lived in luxury. For instance, I equipped every one of their rooms with a tile bath.
I suppose, ventured John, with an ingratiating laugh, that they used the bathtubs to keep coal in. Mr. Schnlitzer-Murphy told me that once he
The opinions of Mr. Schnlitzer-Murphy are of little importance, I should imagine, interrupted Braddock Washington, coldly. My slaves did not keep coal in their bathtubs. They had orders to bathe every day, and they did. If they hadnt I might have ordered a sulphuric acid shampoo. I discontinued the baths for quite another reason. Several of them caught cold and died. Water is not good for certain races except as a beverage.
John laughed, and then decided to nod his head in sober agreement. Braddock Washington made him uncomfortable.
All these negroes are descendants of the ones my father brought North with him. There are about two hundred and fifty now. You notice that theyve lived so long apart from the world that their original dialect has become an almost indistinguishable patois. We bring a few of them up to speak English my secretary and two or three of the house servants.
This is the golf course, he continued, as they strolled along the velvet winter grass. Its all a green, you see no fairway, no rough, no hazards.
He smiled pleasantly at John.
Many men in the cage, father? asked Percy suddenly.
Braddock Washington stumbled, and let forth an involuntary curse.
One less than there should be, he ejaculated darkly and then added after a moment, Weve had difficulties.
Mother was telling me, exclaimed Percy, that Italian teacher
A ghastly error, said Braddock Washington angrily. But of course theres a good chance that we may have got him. Perhaps he fell somewhere in the woods or stumbled over a cliff. And then theres always the probability that if he did get away his story wouldnt be believed. Nevertheless, Ive had two dozen men looking for him in different towns around here.
And no luck?
Some. Fourteen of them reported to my agent that theyd each killed a man answering to that description, but of course it was probably only the reward they were after
He broke off. They had come to a large cavity in the earth about the circumference of a merry-go-round and covered by a strong iron grating. Braddock Washington beckoned to John, and pointed his cane down through the grating. John stepped to the edge and gazed. Immediately his ears were assailed by a wild clamor from below.
Come on down to Hell!
Hello, kiddo, hows the air up there?
Hey! Throw us a rope!
Got an old doughnut, Buddy, or a couple of second-hand sandwiches?
Say, fella, if youll push down that guy youre with, well show you a quick disappearance scene.
Paste him one for me, will you?
It was too dark to see clearly into the pit below, but John could tell from the coarse optimism and rugged vitality of the remarks and voices that they proceeded from middle-class Americans of the more spirited type. Then Mr. Washington put out his cane and touched a button in the grass, and the scene below sprang into light.