IV
Babbitt lay abed at his hotel, imagining the Zenith Athletic
Club asking him, "What kind of a time d'you have in Chicago?''
and his answering, "Oh, fair; ran around with Sir
Gerald Doak a lot;'' picturing himself meeting Lucile McKelvey
and admonishing her, "You're all right, Mrs. Mac, when
you aren't trying to pull this highbrow pose. It's just as Gerald
Doak says to me in Chicago—oh, yes, Jerry's an old friend
of mine—the wife and I are thinking of running over to England
to stay with Jerry in his castle, next year—and he said
to me, `Georgie, old bean, I like Lucile first-rate, but you and
me, George, we got to make her get over this highty-tighty
hooptediddle way she's got.''
But that evening a thing happened which wrecked his pride.
