From under his heavily drooping eyelids, Houston regarded his vis-a-vis with concealed amusement, for he was an apt student of human nature, and possessed an unusual degree of insight into the characteristics of those with whom he was thrown in contact.
Rutherford, on his part, was watching Houston with his usual degree of interest and curiosity. Each was measuring the other from his own standpoint: Houston’s prompt decision was,––“A good-hearted fellow, but something of a cad;” while Rutherford’s vague surmises, summed up verbally, would have been,––“Nice looking sort of fellow, a gentleman; guess he’s got the stuff, too; ’twon’t do any harm to make his acquaintance.”
An opportunity for this soon presented itself, for as the conductor passed leisurely through the car, examining tickets, Rutherford discovered that their destinations were the same, and hastily drawing his card case from his pocket, said:
“As we seem likely to be fellow travelers for a while, I should be pleased to make your acquaintance; allow me,” at the same time offering his card.
Houston took the card, greeting him courteously, and giving his own in exchange. He half smiled as he looked at the diminutive slip of cardboard with its Boston address made unnecessarily prominent, while Rutherford, after scanning the card he held, bearing simply the name of W. E. Houston, remarked with a decidedly upward inflection,
“You are from––?”
“From Chicago,” Houston replied promptly.
“Ah,” Rutherford responded, “then I suppose you are quite familiar with this part of the country.”
“Well, not exactly,” replied Houston, smiling, “Chicago, I’ll admit, seems inclined to embrace a small part of the state of Illinois within her city limits, but I never heard of her attempting to claim the prairies of the Missouri valley among her suburbs.”
“Well, no,” said Rutherford, laughing, “not quite so bad as that, I guess, but perhaps I didn’t convey my meaning very clearly; my idea was, that living in one of the western cities, you know, perhaps you were out this way often.”