Part 24 (1/2)
”_He_ couldn't, could he?”
”Oh, Lord, no.... They appreciate him, too, Barbara.”
”That isn't the way,” she said. ”We don't want him appreciated that way.
That rich, gross way.”
”No. It isn't nearly subtle enough. Any fool could see that his caracoling was funny. They don't know him as we know him. They don't know what he really is.”
”It was an outrage. It's like taking a fine thing and vulgarizing it.
They'd no _business_. And it was cruel, too, to laugh at him like that before his back was turned. When they're going to eat his pears, too.”
”The fact is, Barbara, n.o.body _does_ appreciate him as you and I do.”
”Horry?”
”No. Not Horry. He goes too far. Horry's indecent. f.a.n.n.y, perhaps, sometimes.”
”f.a.n.n.y doesn't see one half of him. She doesn't see his Mrs. Levitt side.”
”Have _you_ seen it, Barbara?”
”Of course I have.”
”You never told me. It isn't fair to go discovering things on your own and not telling me. We must make a compact. To tell each other the very instant we see a thing. We might keep count and give points to which of us sees most. Mrs. Levitt ought to have been a hundred to your score.”
”I'm afraid I can't score with Mrs. Levitt. You saw that, too.”
”It'll be a game for G.o.ds, Barbara.”
”But, Ralph, there might be things we _couldn't_ tell each other. It mightn't be fair to him.”
”Telling each other isn't like telling other people. Hang it all, if we're making a study of him we're making a study. Science is science.
We've no right to suppress anything. At any moment one of us might see something absolutely vital.”
”Whatever we do we musn't be unfair to him.”
”But he's ours, isn't he? We can't be unfair to him. And we've got to be fair to each other. Think of the frightful advantage you might have over me. You're bound to see more things than I do.”
”I might see more, but you'll understand more.”
”Well, then, you can't do without me. It's a compact, isn't it, that we don't keep things back?”
As for Mrs. Levitt's handling of their theme they resented it as an abominable profanation.
”Do you think he's in love with her?” Barbara said.
”What _he_ would call being in love and we shouldn't.”