The Good Man

He called it a triumph that he never controlled her passions. That gadget with propellers, with the pads on the propellers, that he had used to produce ultra-pleasure for Darlene—his dream come true—was swell.

He was consoled by this ultra-pleasure briefly. Soon afterward, he died. He was alone when he died, be­cause his pleasure-loving daughter had gone off to the theater.

As a dead man, prone upon his bed, this gadgeteer would be an inspiration either for Darlene or for his daughter.

One day, when he had been alive, so to speak, he had killed a hornet by slugging it, and then, before he realized what he was doing—seizing for himself an opportunity—he had consumed all of the fresh greens which he had heaped up on his platter, plus the strips of the boiled meat. That should have been the test of his manhood, because he is a darling.