“Tell us about it,” said Lucy. Down in the plaza the singing swelled triumphantly. “I couldn’t really. They were having something ceremonial and private—I don’t know just what. There were baskets of fruit and plates of food; the men made obscene gestures with the bananas. Fertility and all that, I suppose. Gertrude was as white as a sheet; she screamed and drove away as fast as she could, but they didn’t pay any attention to us. I was helpless with laughter. You can imagine Gertrude.” “It’s a wonderful story,” said Lucy. “I should have heard it before. Gertrude never mentioned it to me, but naturally she wouldn’t. Well, Mrs. Lennard....” The singing stopped again. “Now is it over?” “No, that’s just the end of the first clan’s turn. There’ll be a lot more before they call it a day.... It’s a small school; only a hundred or so, and they have a staff psychoanalyst and all the masters really make a specialty of _understanding_ the students. Very modern, of course—you must see the art work. It’s coeducational but not in any silly communist way. I mean it’s individual. Do you understand what I’m trying to say?” “I think so. It’s very interesting to me, because Blake is such a special case....” Lucy nodded deeply. “It’s a school for special cases; that’s the real idea that’s behind it all. The woman who founded it is wonderful. I’ll give you a letter for her. Oh, look, there’s Teddy. Teddy!” She scrambled up and stood on tiptoe, waving. “Of course he’ll never be able to hear me with all this noise.” The singers were chanting in a high falsetto. “He’s too busy with the courier, mother,” said Phyllis. “He can’t hear you over all those people. Well, my dear, he was quite angry with me. Have you ever seen him really angry?” “Never,” said Janie. “I was almost frightened,” said Phyllis. “Of course I don’t really care what he thinks of me, but it was unpleasant for a few minutes. Tell me what you heard about him in New York.” “Oh, it wasn’t anything definite. They talk so in New York, I think. They always say the same thing. I just heard that he gives terribly amusing parties, my dear, with all of that crowd. And no one is quite sure about him because he’s seen with people like that all the time: of course no one thinks anything of it any more, and I do think that if a person is amusing I don’t think a person’s private life ought to have anything to do with it, but what I heard was.” “This atmosphere is simply marvelous for young people,” Lucy was telling Mary. “The combination of healthy outdoor life and the peculiar feeling one gets out here of history—the Spaniards, and the Western pioneers, and all that. And the wonderful Indian culture. They imbibe something. Everybody here is so unusually appreciative, haven’t you found it so?”