A nattily dressed gentleman seated to one side
of her place at table rose with the most polite bows and extended hand.
Hazel recognized him at a glance as Mr. Howard Perkins, traveling
salesman for Harrington & Bush. She had met him several times in the
company offices. She was anything save joyful at the meeting, but
after the first unwelcome surprise she reflected that it was scarcely
strange that a link in her past life should turn up here, for she knew
that in the very nature of things a firm manufacturing agricultural
implements would have its men drumming up trade on the very edge of the
frontier.
Mr. Perkins was tolerably young, good looking, talkative, apparently
glad to meet some one from home. He joined her on the porch for a
minute when the meal was over. And he succeeded in putting Hazel
unqualifiedly at her ease so far as he was concerned. If he had heard
any Granville gossip, if he knew why she had left Granville, it
evidently cut no figure with him. As a consequence, while she was
simply polite and negatively friendly, deep in her heart Hazel felt a
pleasant reaction from the disagreeable things for which Granville
stood; and, though she nursed both resentment and distrust against men
in general, it did not seem to apply to Mr.
Pages:
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86