"Sure," said the Flopper, grinning a little now. "Sure t'ing—but youse needn't get on yer ear about it. Cheer up, mabbe de Doc'll be out to-night, an' if he don't hear youse yellin' himself will I tell him youse are out on de beach t'rowin' a fit?"
"No," Helena answered sharply; "tell him nothing—I'm out." Then, quite as quickly, changing her mind: "Yes; tell him I'm down there—or come and get me yourself"—and she walked abruptly into her own room.
"Now wot do youse t'ink of dat?" demanded the Flopper of the universe. He blinked at the
door she had closed in his face. "Say," he asserted, with sublime inconsistency, "if Mamie Rodgers was like all de rest of dem, I'd t'row up me dukes before de gong rang." The Flopper went into the Patriarch's room, and took the chair beside the other that Helena had vacated. "Swipe me, if I wouldn't!" he added fervently, by way of confirmation.
Helena, in her own room, opened one of her trunks, lifted out the tray, worked somewhat impatiently down through several layers of yellow, paper-covered literature, that would have made the classics on the Patriarch's bookshelves shrivel up and draw their skirts hurriedly around them in righteous horror could they but have known or been capable of such intensely human characteristics, and finally produced a daintily jewelled little cigarette case and match box. She slammed the tray back, slammed the cover of the trunk down, snatched up a wrap, flung it over her head and shoulders—and left the cottage.
She ran down to the beach at top speed, as if she couldn't get there fast enough.
"And now I'm just going to yell and go crazy as much as ever I like!" panted Helena to the rollers.
Instead, she sat down with her back to a rock, and opened her cigarette case. She took out a cigarette, extracted a match from the match box, lighted the match—and flung both cigarette and match from her.
"I don't want to be crazy—I don't know what
I want," said Helena petulantly. Her chin went into her hands, and she stared wide-eyed at the breaking surf. "I wonder what it all means?" she murmured, with a mirthless little laugh.