The Door Between Read Online Free

water.
    “Like the dead,” she said firmly.
    “Dream much?” asked Dr. Scott, pretending not to have noticed.
    “A good deal,” said Eva. “But don’t ask me what I dream about because I won’t tell you.”
    “You have already,” said Dr. Scott dryly. “Well, let’s see. Get the patient’s own diagnosis. Often helpful in psychiatric cases – can’t see anything physical at the moment. What do you think’s the matter with you?”
    Eva drew her legs out of the pool definitely, tucking them in and inspecting the young man with frigidity.
    “Now, please, don’t be difficult. You misunderstood. I was rehearsing the lines of a – a play I’m giving next week for my settlement children.”
    “‘I wish I were dead ,’” repeated Dr. Scott reflectively. “A little morbid for the tots, I should think.”
    Their eyes locked; and after a while Eva turned back to the hungry little gullets in the pool, feeling hot and cold in alarmingly rapid alternations.
    “All this piffle about when goldfish sleep,” drawled the large young man. “Don’t give me that . Have you any women-friends to speak of?”
    “Mobs,” said Eva stiffly.
    “For instance? I think I know some of your crowd.”
    “Well, there’s Karen,” said Eva, desperately trying to think of someone different.
    “Nonsense. She’s not a woman. She’s a cloud! And twice as old as you, too.”
    “I don’t like women any more.”
    “How about men?”
    “I hate men!”
    Dr. Scott whistled, as if a great light had fallen. He lay back on the grass skirting the lip of the pool, resting his head on his palms. “Restless, eh?” he remarked to the dappled sky.
    “Sometimes.”
    “Cramps in your legs occasionally, as if you’d like to kick somebody?”
    “Why –!”
    “Kids at the settlement suddenly get on your nerves?”
    “I didn’t say –”
    “Dream things you’re ashamed of? Yes, I know that.”
    “I never said –”
    “Moony over picture-stars – Howard, the Gable menace?”
    “Dr. Scott!”
    “And of course,” said Dr. Scott, nodding at the moon, “you inspect yourself in the mirror rather oftener than usual these days, too.”
    Eva was so startled she began to cry: “How did you – ?” but then bit her lip and felt terribly ashamed, really undressed. How could any one ever marry a doctor? she asked herself fiercely. It must be horrible living with a – with a human stethoscope who knew what made you tick. It was true. Everything he had said was true. It was all so true and so embarrassing Eva hated him. She had never thought she could hate anyone quite so much as she hated him. It was bad enough having an old doctor strip your sacred secrets from you, but a young one … She had heard he was only a little past thirty. How could he have any respect …
    “How did I know?” said Dr. Scott dreamily from the grass; she felt his eyes burn on her naked shoulders – at least, one spot between her shoulder-blades tingled. “Why, it’s just biology. It’s what makes babies possible.”
    “You’re – simply – horrid!” cried Eva.
    “A stunner like you. Spring – twenty – she hates men she says … Oh, my aunt!”
    Eva furtively inspected herself in the water. Something was happening to her inside – a little boiling area in the region of the diaphragm, hot and jumpy.
    “Never been in love, of course,” murmured Dr. Scott.
    Eva sprang to her bare feet. “Now I am going!”
    “Ah, touched the nerve. Sit down.” Eva sat down. That boiling was the most curious thing. She knew she was miserable, and naturally he was the most insufferable creature; yet the area was spreading to her chest and it was beginning to make breathing difficult. “Well, that’s what you need. That’s what you want. Dr. Scott’s prescription for young females. Love, or whatever it is you women call it. Do you good.”
    “Goodbye,” said Eva, almost in tears. But she did not go.
    “Trouble with you,” said Dr. Scott, and in the