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Hilmer did not appear to be moved by the announcement. "Better cancel and rewrite the bunch," he replied, briefly. Fred gasped. This meant that only about a sixth of the premium on the present policies would be due and payable at the end of the month and the prospects of a big clean-up on commissions delayed until July. "Oh, that won't be necessary," he tried to say, calmly.
What would have been his reaction to physical fear on Helen Starratt's part? Suppose on that afternoon when he had watched her wheeling Mrs. Hilmer up and down with deceitful patience he had gone over and struck her the blow which was primitively her portion? Would the sight of her whimpering fear have stirred him to further elemental cruelties?
The two months following were rough and uneven. He had to borrow continually from Brauer, meet Hilmer with a bland smile, suffer the covert sarcasms of his wife. Some money came in, but it barely kept things moving. His broker friend had been right the payment of any premiums but fire premiums dragged on "till the cows came home."
Starratt refused to be forewarned. The people he went after were personal friends or gilt-edged business men. They wouldn't deny their obligations when the premiums fell due. But the greatest rallying point for his business enthusiasm proved to be Hilmer. It seemed that scarcely a day went by that Hilmer did not drop a new piece of business Fred's way.
Hilmer could see no one seemed rather tentative and perfunctory. Fred had a curious feeling that she was demanding a more or less conventional excuse for admitting him, and in the end he flung out as a chance: "Tell Mrs. Hilmer I have a message from Sylvia Molineaux."
Hostilities ceased with the black coffee, and in the tiny living room Hilmer grew almost genial. His life had been varied and he was rather proud of it that is, he was proud of the more sordid details, which he recounted with an air of satisfaction. He liked to dwell on his poverty, his lack of opportunity, his scant education.
Hilmer on the surroundings was becoming a trifle blurred. He came at once to the point he had a business proposition to make to Hilmer and he wished to see him. But Helen was not to be excluded from the secret of his mission that easily. The doctor had denied anybody access to Hilmer; therefore, unless it was very urgent... "I want to see about a partnership arrangement," Fred explained, finally.
He checked the retort that rose to his lips... He couldn't help getting the nasty inferences that people on the street threw at him unconsciously or maliciously, but he could help voicing them or admitting them even to himself. "Is ... is Hilmer so hard to manage?" he found himself inquiring. Helen looked up sharply.
Hilmer these same words came to mind. Hilmer disturbed him. He was a huge man with a rather well-chiseled face, considering his thickness of limb, and his blond hair fell in an untidy shower about his prominent and throbbing temples. Fred felt him to be a man without any inherited social graces, yet he contrived to appear at ease. Was it because he was disposed to let the women chatter?
She threw back her head defensively. "This way!" Hilmer said, as he opened a private exit for her. She found herself in the marble-flanked hallway and presently she gained the sun-flooded street. The blood was pounding at her temples and its throb hurt.
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