The telephone rang. Dr. Mary held out her hand. "It may sound vague, but we're in earnest."
"It sounds anything but that. I feel as if you'd turned a white searchlight on Society for me, and——"
"All right. So long as you don't call the article that. 'Gropings' would be nearer the mark. But if you're really interested come and see me sometimes. We're pretty busy all the week, but I usually have Sunday afternoons to myself. It's the only time I have for my personal friends. I want you to come."
"I certainly shall, and thank you."
Waiting in a drugstore at the foot of the hill, Herrick saw Jean before she saw him. She was walking quickly, her head back, her eyes glowing.
"Good Lord, what's happened? She looks like a modern Joan of Arc."
Herrick stepped out and joined her. "I suppose you would have walked right over me and not known it. You look as if you were just about to step off the edge of the world into eternal joy. What happened?"
"She's the most wonderful person that ever lived!" Jean's enthusiasm rayed from her in a physical current. Herrick smiled.
"No wonder the rest of us dry up and grow old. People like you and Dr. Mary have cornered all the energy and belief in the universe."
"Don't mention me in the same breath. My enthusiasms and beliefs are like—like specks of dust on a diamond compared to hers. I feel like a puling infant beside King Solomon. Just think of it—to go on never giving up, never weakening, always believing. To feel that you mean something. Not that you just fit in, but that you have a place that nobody else can take! To do things. To take human beings and make them into something!"