"Oh, is it? You'll see. All New York will have the story in twenty-four hours. Pretty sort of a tale to get to the Mission! The Mission! If those people heard! Imagine the embroideries! I could never lift my head down there again."
"Let the world go hang. Have you anything to be ashamed of, Una?"
The seriousness that Una attached to the affair, while it bewildered, also inflamed him. "I wish it had been a man who had talked to you the way Marcia did."
He smiled grimly. "I think I'd kill him," he said softly.
I think Jerry's tone must have comforted her, for he said that after that Una grew quieter.
"The world is very intolerant of idyls, Jerry."
They had reached a road which overlooked the river. Long, cool shadows brushed their faces as they rushed on from orchard to meadow, all redolent of sweet odors.
"Friendship is no idyl, Una, with us. It's more like reality, isn't it?"
"I'm sure of it. I'm always myself with you, Una. I seem to want you to know all the things I'm thinking about. That's the surest indication, isn't it? And I want to know what you're thinking about. I feel as though I'd given you too many additional burdens down town, that you may tire this summer."
"Oh, you needn't worry. I'm quite strong."
"I want you to lay out some definite work that I can do, not merely giving money, but myself, my own strength and energy." He laughed. "You know I'm really thinking of asking you to establish a mission for men only, with _me_ as the first patient. It does seem to straighten me out somehow, just being with you--keeps me from thinking crooked."
"Yes, often. Things bother me. Then I'm like a child. You've no idea of the vast abyss of my ignorance."
"But you _mustn't_ think crooked. I won't have it."
"I can't help it, sometimes. People aren't always what you expect 'em to be. I ought to understand better by this time, but I don't."
"People aren't like books, Jerry. You're sure of books. But with people, you can turn the same page again and again and the printing is different every time."
"Yes, and the pages are rather smudgy here and there, but you'll learn to read them some day. The office will help you, Jerry, because business people _have_ to think straight or be repudiated. You ought to go to the office every day and work--work whether you like it or not. You've got too much money. It's dangerous. You're like a colt just out in the pasture, all hocks and skittishness. Work is the only thing for that. It may be tiresome but you've got to stick at it if it kills you."