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Updated: April 30, 2025
And when Hilmer had placed him calmly in the ranks of the middle class the wine of content had turned suddenly sour. A year ago his efforts were being directed at escape from so contemptuous a characterization; to-night he was content to acknowledge the impeachment and find a pride in the circumstance.
Frankly, neither did Fred Starratt, but he held his peace. He was thinking just where he would gather enough money together to pay Mrs. Finn's questionable substitute. The guests arrived shortly and there were the usual stiff, bromidic greetings. Mrs. Hilmer had been presented to Fred first ... a little, spotless, homey Scandinavian type, who radiated competent housekeeping and flawless cooking.
"I've got something for you to-day," Hilmer went on, as he unbound the bundle of papers and sat down beside Fred. Starratt saw the edge of a blue print in Hilmer's hand. This spelled all manner of possibilities, but he checked a surge of illogical hope. "That's fine," he answered, heartily. "But why didn't you send for me? I could have come over.
Unaccustomed as he was to thinking in the terms of group consciousness, he fell back, naturally, upon the personal aspects of the case. He was sure of one thing Hilmer's contempt and scorn. In what class did Hilmer place himself? Above or below?... But the answer came almost before it was framed Hilmer looked down upon him. That almost told the story, but not quite.
They might elect to be silent, but what a voice he could raise!... He had come out of a chuckling silence to hear Hilmer saying between almost shut teeth: "I suppose you'll be needing money now, Starratt... Railroad rates have all been raised."
"Fifty cents ... for carrying two grips a hundred yards... Well, she must have money... And she's taking a little trip south for her health, I suppose!... I wonder when friend Hilmer will follow?" Fred tried to draw away, but Storch's insinuating clutch was too firm. "Let me go!" he half begged and half commanded. "What business is all this of yours?... Who has told you all this about me?"
Hilmer in one of these gaudy confections. Almost any of them would have looked well on Helen herself. But any woman who went in for dressing at all would need a trunkload, she concluded, if one were to decently last out a season. She found herself speculating on just what class of people would invest in these hectic flesh coverings.
Hilmer did not betray the slightest surprise at Starratt's reply. Evidently he had heard something of the same argument before. "Everybody does it," was his calmly brief rejoinder. "You mean Kendrick, to be exact... I'm sorry, but I don't see it that way." "Do you mean that you would rather pass up a half-million-dollar line than share the spoils?" "It isn't a question of choice, Hilmer.
Storch continued his searching scrutiny. Fred felt uneasy it seemed as if this man opposite him was drawing the innermost secret of his soul to the surface. Finally Storch rubbed his hands together with an air of satisfaction as he said: "So you know Hilmer!... That makes you all the more interesting... Well, well, let's be moving. I'll put you up for the night. I've got a shelter, such as it is."
Hilmer brought down a hat the two had picked out and which had been altered at Helen's suggestion. She tried it on for Helen's approval, and Fred stood back in a corner while Helen went into ecstasies over it. Even a man could not escape the fact that it was unbecoming. Somehow, in a subtle way, it seemed to accent all of Mrs. Hilmer's unprepossessing features.
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