As he stared at her, she turned and ran back into the house. He went toward the barn calling, “Sugar! Where are you, god damn it? Plumboy! Saddle my horse!”

Leon rode hard into Highboro, more as one fleeing than as one going for help. He found Dr. Chester Porterfield at home, sleeping after his own heavy noonday dinner. When roused by his wife, he was at first reluctant to go for yet a while, and when she scolded him, he began to dress, but sullenly refused to hurry. He had, of course, known his services would be called upon and had made the acquaintance of the mother-to-be a month ago. The thought that went through the doctor’s mind on that occasion as he enjoyed coffee and cake was, “Pretty woman. Big hips. Should have no trouble.” Now, as his wife urged him to “make haste,” reminding him of the importance of Kendricks, he stuck out his tongue at her and made a childish sound before telling her to have their manservant hitch up the horse and buggy. He then went out to the front porch and, yawning, talked a minute or two with Leon before suggesting that Leon get along back home, promising him that he would follow shortly. “There is time, God’s own plenty. You’ll see.”

He was right in saying there was time and wrong in saying that Leon would see, because Leon went straight from the doctor’s house to his uncle’s office. It happened that Bonard had been the dinner guest of Felix and Nell, and that after dinner, as was their custom, Felix and Bonard left Nell to her rest and digestion and went off to the office to drink a little whiskey slowly, to smoke cigars, and to talk about all manner of things men could only talk about in each other’s company.

Leon was as happy to find them as they were surprised to see him. When Bonard had given him a cigar and helped him light it from his own, and when Felix had found a glass for him and poured whiskey into it, the three settled back, tilting their chairs onto hind legs, and talked.