And because paw has to sell pork
and flour, we haven't any call to go there and watch him do it."
The two men glanced at each other. This reserve and fastidiousness were
something rare in a pioneer community. Harkutt's manners certainly did
not indicate that he was troubled by this sensitiveness; it must have
been some individual temperament of his daughters. Stephen felt his
respect increase for the goddess-like Clementina; Mr. Lawrence Grant
looked at Miss Phemie with a critical smile.
"But you must be very limited in your company," he said; "or is Mr.
Parmlee not a customer of your father's?"
"As Mr. Parmlee does not come to us through the store, and don't talk
trade to me, we don't know," responded Phemie saucily.
"But have you no lady acquaintances--neighbors--who also avoid the store
and enter only at the straight and narrow gate up there?" continued
Grant mischievously, regardless of the uneasy, half-reproachful glances
of Rice.
But Phemie, triumphantly oblivious of any satire, answered promptly:
"If you mean the Pike County Billingses who live on the turnpike road as
much as they do off it, or the six daughters of that Georgia Cracker who
wear men's boots and hats, we haven't."
"And Mr. Parmlee, your admirer?" suggested Rice. "Hasn't he a mother or
sisters here?"
"Yes, but they don't want to know us, and have never called here."
The embarrassment of the questioner at this unexpected reply, which came
from the faultless lips of Clementina, was somewhat mitigated by the
fact that the young woman's voice and manner betrayed neither annoyance
nor anger.
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