Now I was part and parcel of the household, no longer a stranger-friend on a visit. Though Penton's jail-experience did not thrill me, the continued thronging of reporters did, as did Baxter's raging desire to do good for the poor ordinary prisoners in jail. He had got at several of them who had received a raw deal in the courts, and was moving heaven and earth to bring redress to them. He gave interviews, dictated articles ... the State officials were furious. "What's the matter with the fellow? What's he bother about the other fellows for, he ought to be glad he's not in their shoes!"... In agitations for the public good, in humanitarian projects, Baxter was indeed a great man ... I loomed like a pigmy beside him. * * * * * Darrie and I in dialogue: She met me on the path, as I was proceeding toward the big house. She carried Carpenter's _Love's Coming of Age_ in her hand. She was dressed daintily. Her brown eyes smiled at me, and a rich dimple broke in her cheek. But Darrie was taller than Hildreth, and I like small women best; perhaps because I am myself so big. "Don't go up to the house, Johnnie." "I want a book from the library." "Hildreth and Penton are there. Hildreth is having a soul-state." "A what?" I laughed. "Oh, she thinks something is the matter with her soul, and, for the three hundredth time since I've known them, Penton and she are discussing their lives together." "I don't see anything to jest about in that." "I'm tiring of it ... if Hildreth has a tooth-ache, or anything that the rest of us women accept as a matter of course, she runs to Mubby, as she calls him ... and, as if it were some abstruse, philosophical problem, they talk on, hour after hour ... like German metaphysics, there's no end to it. They've been at it since ten and they'll go on till four, if they follow precedents ... Penton takes Hildreth too seriously." "You talk as if you, you were jealous of Hildreth and in love with Penton." "It's neither the one nor the other. I love them both, and I want to see them happy together." "You see, Darrie, neither you nor I are married, and neither of us knows anything about sex, except in the theory of the books we've read--how can _we judge_ the troubles of a man and woman who are married?" "There's a lot in what you say." "I believe it would be better if we both cleared out and left them to fight this out alone." "Perhaps it would." * * * * * "Darrie, Oh, Darrie!--want to come for a walk with Hildreth and me?" So the three set off together, leaving me and Ruth alone. * * * * *