Evidently the mother did not know of the relationship between me and her
daughter.
"So you are the poet Hildreth has told me about?" after we had
discoursed for upwards of an hour--
"I can easily see how Hildreth has grown so fond of you," and she patted
me on the head as if I were a schoolboy, in motherly fashion.
* * * * *
"Mother's rather stupid and old-fashioned ... there'd be no use trying
to explain the situation to her. The best thing we can do is to persuade
her that Daniel needs her, down in Eden ... that will remove her from
the flat, so we can have it all to ourselves for a few days, in order to
plan what is to be done next."
Next morning Mrs. Deuell, Hildreth's mother, as innocent as a new-born
lamb as to what was up, permitted herself to be shipped off to Eden, to
take care of Daniel.
* * * * *
Instead of planning, however, and marshalling our resources, Hildreth
and I abandoned ourselves to the mutual happiness and endearments of two
love-drunk, emotion-crazed beings on a honeymoon....
* * * * *
The bell rang. In walked Darrie.
"Well, Darrie!" and Hildreth embraced her friend. And I was glad to see
her, too. I knew that, in spite of the high pressure we had lived under
during the past summer, Darrie was trying hard to be just, to be friend
to all of us.
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