“And in the beginning she was a perfectly good girl that needed nothing in the world but a chance to develop along legitimate lines.”
“The frustrate matron, eh?” Peter said.
“The frustrate matron,” David agreed gravely. “I wonder you haven’t realized this yourself, Gram. You’re keener about such things than I am. Beulah is more your job than mine.” 222
“Is she?”
“You’re the only one she listens to or looks up to. Go up and tackle her some day and see what you can do. She’s sinking fast.”
“Give her the once over and throw out the lifeline,” Jimmie said.
“I thought all this stuff was a phase, a part of her taking herself seriously as she always has. I had no idea it was anything to worry about,” Peter persisted. “Are you sure she’s in bad shape—that she’s got anything more than a bad attack of Feminism of the Species in its most virulent form? They come out of that, you know.”
“She’s batty,” Jimmie nodded gravely. “Dave’s got the right dope.”
“Go up and look her over,” David persisted; “you’ll see what we mean, then. Beulah’s in a bad way.”
Peter reviewed this conversation while he shaved the right side of his face, and frowned prodigiously through the lather. He wished that he had an engagement that evening that he could break in order to get to see Beulah at once, and discover for himself the harm that had come to his friend. He was devoted to Beulah. He had always felt 223 that he saw a little more clearly than the others the virtue that was in the girl. He admired the pluck with which she made her attack on life and the energy with which she accomplished her ends. There was to him something alluring and quaint about her earnestness. The fact that her soundness could be questioned came to him with something like a shock. As soon as he was dressed he was called to the telephone to talk to David.