aps I have been too harsh with Penton....

"He is steering on a chartless sea with no compass....

"No wonder he, and all radicals and pioneers in human thought, blunder
ridiculously....

"The conservative world has its charts, its course well mapped out....

"I suppose I am not strong enough, big enough, for him."

"Hush! now it is you who're just talking!" I replied.

"You're jealous!"

"By God, yes. I _am_ jealous, though I suppose I ought to be ashamed of
it."

* * * * *

She sat in bed, propped up with pillows. She had been reading
Shakespeare's sonnets aloud to me. The big green-shaded reading lamp
cast a dim light that pervaded the room.

She reached out both arms to me, the wide sleeves falling back from
them, and showing their feminine whiteness....

I sat down beside her, caught her to me, kissed her till she was
breathless....

"There ... there ... please! _Please!_"

"What! you're not tiring of my kisses?"

"No, dearest boy, but I have a curious feeling, I tell you ... maybe
we're being watched...."

"Nonsense ... he believes I told him the truth."

And I caught her in my arms again, half-reclining on the bed.

"Sh!" she flung me off with a sudden impulse of frightened strength, "I
hear someone."

"It's only the wind."

"Quick!... my God!"--

* * * * *

I snatched up a volume of Keats. It fell open at "St. Agnes Eve." I
hurled myself into a chair ... gathering my breath I began aloud, as
naturally as I could--

"St. Agnes' Eve! ah, bitter chill it was;
The owl, for all his feathers, was a-cold--"

At that very instant, Penton burst in at the door.

He paused a dramatic moment, his back to it, facing us.

I stopped reading, in pretended astonishment.

"Well, Penton?" acted Hildreth languidly....

The look of defeat and bewilderment on the husband's face would have
been comic if it had not been pitiable.

I rose, laying the book down carefully.

"I think I'll go now, Hildreth ... you wish to see Penton alone." I put
all the calm casual deference in my voice possible. I started to walk
easily to the door.

"No! stop! I wish you to stay here, John Gregory ... since you've got
yourself into this--"

"I'd like to know what you mean by 'got yourself into this'?"

"Oh, Gregory, let's not talk nonsense any longer."

"You don't believe what I assured you this morning?"

"Johnnie, it's not human ... I can't m