"I'll come in the window."
I was at the window madly. I caught it. It was locked. But I pulled it up like a maniac. The lock, rusty, flew off with a zing! The window crashed up. I tumbled in at one leap.
My whole life was saying, "this is your woman, your first and only woman—go where she is and take her to yourself!"
That avalanche of me bursting in without denial, struck little Hildreth Baxter dumb with interest. She had been kneeling by her bed, sobbing. Now she rose and was sitting on it.
"Well?" and she smiled wanly, looking at me with fear and a twinkle of amusement, and intrigued interest, all at one and the same time, on her face—
"I couldn't stand seeing you suffer, Hildreth. I had to come in. And you wouldn't unlock the door ... what has gone wrong?"
"It's Darrie!—"
"But you all three started on your hike like such a happy family, and—"
"For God's sake don't think I'm jealous of Darrie ... I'm only wild about the way she encourages Mubby to talk over his troubles with her—and tell her about him and me, asking her advice ... as if she could give any advice worth while—
"They began to talk and talk about me just as if I were a laboratory specimen....