“I’ll settle that right here. If I have to choose between your stupid old Society and my complete independence I won’t come out. I could get a lot more out of New York, anyhow, by myself, and if I want to know people Elsie will take me among the sophisticates. You know perfectly well I’d be a failure in Society, anyhow.”
Polly was dismayed. She had watched the evolution of Gita with satisfaction and mirth, and was convinced that when she had shed the last of her bristles she would be a regular girl; not quite like anyone else, perhaps, but amenable. But this was taking freedom altogether too seriously. She gathered her forces and she was a hardy antagonist.
“Know what will happen?” she demanded, seating herself and lighting a cigarette. “The men of that sophisticate crowd will feel they can insult you with impunity. Pretty mixed crowd; not all gentlemen, not by a long sight. I’ve sneaked out and gone to several of their parties with Eustace. They don’t drink any more than we do, for they couldn’t, but our boys, rotten as they are, know how to treat us—have the same code—and some of those men, let me tell you, do not; when they’re lit, at all events. And, as you don’t write, or anything of that sort, they’d assume you were a blasée rich girl out for larks. You’re a beauty in your own fierce way, and they’d paw you till you were sick. Neither Eustace nor Elsie could protect you——”
“Shut up! Shut up!” Gita stamped her foot. Her black brows were an unbroken line and her eyes shooting sparks. “Don’t you suppose I know how to take care of myself? I’ve had enough experience, God knows. I’m not afraid of sophisticates; they’re probably babies beside European men, and if they were as bad as you make them out, which they probably are not, I’d keep them in their place. I haven’t been to any of your parties, but I’ve met men at your house and I wouldn’t put anything past them——”
“Right, right, my dear. But you’re not their sort—not yet at all events. Men have to be met half-way, these days. They won’t bother you——”
“You just said those other men were not my sort either.”
“More so, for they have brains. They’d go crazy over you because you suggest sex, all right, even if you haven’t any, and sex is their main preoccupation. You’ll be safe with us, my dear—and nowhere else.”
She had played her first strong card and was wise enough to break off and open her vanity-box, while Gita strode over to the window and stared moodily at the calm old oak on the lawn.
“I needn’t go into that crowd either.” Gita broke the silence after Polly had powdered her nose and lit another cigarette.
“Oh? Sure? You forget you’ve learned what companionship means, and I doubt if you could do without it. Eustace must have taught that hungry mind of yours a few things. Hasn’t he?”