"
He looked at me with his sharp eyes. "There's probably some nice chap in
the village, eh?"
I shook my head. I had just caught sight of the broken pieces of the
Moody water-pitcher on the ice below.
"No nice young man!" he remarked. "Not the telegraph operator, or the
fellow who runs the livery-stable--I've forgotten his name."
"Look here," I turned on him, "if you're talking all this nonsense to
keep my mind off things, you needn't."
"I'm not," he said. "I'm asking for the sake of my own mind, but we'll
not bother about that now. We'd better start back."
It was still snowing, although not so hard. The air had done me some
good, but the lump in my throat seemed to have gone to my chest. The
doctor helped me along, for the snow was drifting, and when he saw I was
past the crying stage he went back to what we were both thinking about.
"Old Pierce is right," he said. "Remember, Miss Minnie, I've nothing
against you or your mineral spring; in fact, I'm strong for you both.
But while I'm out of the ring now for good--I don't mind saying to you
what I said to Pierce, that the only thing that gets into training here,
as far as I can see, is a fellow's pocketbook."
We went back to the house and I straightened the news stand, Amanda
King having taken a violent toothache as a result of the excitement.
The Jenningses were packing to go, and Miss Summers had got a bottle of
peroxide and shut herself in her room. At six o'clock Tillie beckoned
to me from the door of the officers' dining-room and said she'd put the
basket in the snow by the grape arbor.
Pages:
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173