"Do they have to be poor and dirty and foreign, Jean? Wouldn't just plain needing be enough?"
The voice was wistful and Jean laughed rather uncertainly. "No, I don't suppose they would have to be dirty."
"Just so long as they were miserable and weak and dependent enough?"
"Yes. I guess that would do. I suppose all women like to be needed. It flatters our vanity and makes up for all the big things in the world we can't get at."
Herrick gave Jean's hand a quick pressure and let it go. "Kind of indirect action. Well, did this wonderful person come through with an interview?"
"Yes. I suppose she did, if you call shooting a perfect ignoramus into a new world, an interview. I felt as if I were out with a little kite to gather all the electricity in the heavens. Just think of trying to get that personality into three thousand words and hand it in to-morrow."
"It'll look more possible after dinner, a large, soggy dinner. Nothing like it for dragging the soul down within reach."
CHAPTER TEN
Whenever Jean looked back on that night she could remember every detail of the dinner, everything that had been said, almost the order of its saying. Thrilled by the happiness and vitality of Jean and of the emotional response Dr. Mary had waked in her, Herrick let himself go in the delight of answering completely to her mood. Something of the sensation of flying entered them both, as if they were skimming all discord, all the petty misunderstanding of ordinary intercourse. Long after, Jean smiled as she remembered how strongly this feeling had held her and how sure she had been of it.
It was a gay dinner and they sat on in the little restaurant until almost nine. Whenever Jean found a good phrase or Herrick had an illuminating idea on the structure of the article they jotted it down. When they finished there was quite a sheaf of these notes.