"Say, Saxon, d'ye know I don't care if I never see movie pictures
again."
CHAPTER IX
Saxon and Billy were gone weeks on the trip south, but in the end
they came back to Carmel. They had stopped with Hafler, the poets
in the Marble House, which he had built with his own hands. This
queer dwelling was all in one room, built almost entirely of
white marble. Hailer cooked, as over a campfire, in the huge
marble fireplace, which he used in all ways as a kitchen. There
were divers shelves of books, and the massive furniture he had
made from redwood, as he had made the shakes for the roof. A
blanket, stretched across a corner, gave Saxon privacy. The poet
was on the verge of departing for San Francisco and New York, but
remained a day over with them to explain the country and run over
the government land with Billy. Saxon had wanted to go along that
morning, but Hafler scornfully rejected her, telling her that her
legs were too short. That night, when the men returned, Billy was
played out to exhaustion. He frankly acknowledged that Hafler had
walked him into the ground, and that his tongue had been hanging
out from the first hour. Hafler estimated that they had covered
fifty-five miles.
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