He wandered for an hour and came back to find that, in a "dry" city
which he had never seen before, the crafty Bill had obtained a quart of
Bourbon, and was in a state of unsteady beatitude. He wanted, he
announced, to dance.
Milt got him into the community bathtub, and soused him under, but
Bill's wet body was slippery, and Bill's merry soul was all for
frolicsome gamboling, and he slid out of Milt's grasp, he sloshed around
in the tub, he sprinkled Milt's sacred good suit with soapy water, and
escaped, and in the costume of Adam he danced orientally in Milt's room,
till he was seized with sleepiness and cosmic grief, and retired to
Milt's bed in tears and nothing else.
The room dimmed, grew dark. The street lamps outside sent a wan, wavery
gleam into the room. Evening crowds went by, and in a motion-picture
theater a banging piano struck up. Bill breathed in choking snorts. Milt
sat unmoving, feeling very old, very tired, too dumbly unhappy to be
frightened of the dreadful coming hour when Claire and Jeff should hear
of Bill, and discover Milt's real world.
He was not so romantically loyal, not so inhumanly heroic, that it can
truthfully be reported that he never thought of getting rid of Bill. He
did think of it, again and again. But always he was touched by Bill's
unsuspecting trust, and shook his head, and sank again into the fog.
What was the use of trying to go ahead? Wasn't he, after all, merely a
Bill McGolwey himself?
If he was, he wouldn't inflict himself on Claire.
For several minutes he gave up forever the zest of climbing.
When Bill awoke, brightly solicitous about the rest of the quart of
Bourbon, and bouncingly ready to "go out and have a time," Milt loafed
about the streets with him, showing him the city. He dully cut his
classes, next morning, and took Bill to the wharves.
It was late in the afternoon, when they were lounging in the room, and
Bill was admiring his new pants--he boasted of having bought them for
three dollars, and pointed out that Milt had been a "galoot" to spend
ten dollars for shoes--that some one knocked at the door. Sleepily
expectant of his landlady, Milt opened it on Miss Claire Boltwood, Mr.
and Mrs. Eugene Gilson, and Mr. Geoffrey Saxton.
Saxton calmly looked past him, at Bill, smiled slightly, and
condescended, "I thought we ought to call on you, so we've dropped in to
beg for tea."
Bill had stopped midway in scratching his head to gape at Claire. Claire
returned the look, stared at Bill's frowsy hair, his red wrists, his
wrinkled, grease-stained coat, his expression of impertinent stupidity.
Then she glanced questioningly at Milt, who choked: "Oh yes, yes, sure, glad see you, come in, get some tea, so glad see
you, come in----"