From doing the thing for the need’s sake, he came to doing the thing for
the thing’s sake. He found himself regretting as the time drew near for
him to go back to his lecture-room and his inhibition. And he often
found himself waiting with anticipation for the dreamy time to pass when
he could cross the Slot and cut loose and play the devil. He was not
wicked, but as “Big” Bill Totts he did a myriad things that Freddie
Drummond would never have been permitted to do. Moreover, Freddie
Drummond never would have wanted to do them. That was the strangest part
of his discovery. Freddie Drummond and Bill Totts were two totally
different creatures. The desires and tastes and impulses of each ran
counter to the other’s. Bill Totts could shirk at a job with clear
conscience, while Freddie Drummond condemned shirking as vicious,
criminal, and un-American, and devoted whole chapters to condemnation of
the vice. Freddie Drummond did not care for dancing, but Bill Totts
never missed the nights at the various dancing clubs, such as The
Magnolia, The Western Star, and The Elite; while he won a massive silver
cup, standing thirty inches high, for being the best-sustained character
at the Butchers and Meat Workers’ annual grand masked ball. And Bill
Totts liked the girls and the girls liked him, while Freddie Drummond
enjoyed playing the ascetic in this particular, was open in his
opposition to equal suffrage, and cynically bitter in his secret
condemnation of coeducation.
Freddie Drummond changed his manners with his dress, and without effort.
When he entered the obscure little room used for his transformation
scenes, he carried himself just a bit too stiffly. He was too erect, his
shoulders were an inch too far back, while his face was grave, almost
harsh, and practically expressionless. But when he emerged in Bill
Totts’ clothes he was another creature. Bill Totts did not slouch, but
somehow his whole form limbered up and became graceful. The very sound
of the voice was changed, and the laugh was loud and hearty, while loose
speech and an occasional oath were as a matter of course on his lips.
Also, Bill Totts was a trifle inclined to late hours, and at times, in
saloons, to be good-naturedly bellicose with other workmen. Then, too,
at Sunday picnics or when coming home from the show, either arm betrayed
a practised familiarity in stealing around girls’ waists, while he
displayed a wit keen and delightful in the flirtatious badinage that was
expected of a good fellow in his class.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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