The girl rose hastily and came forward. “Mother,” she said, “here’s Mr. Opp.”
Mrs. Gusty glanced up from one to the other, evidently undecided how to meet the situation. But the hesitancy was not for long; Mr. Opp’s watch-fob, glittering in the sunlight, symbolized such prosperity that she hastily extended a cordial hand of welcome.
“You don’t mean to tell me Guin-never has been keeping you out here on the porch instead of taking you in the parlor? And hasn’t she given you a thing to drink? Well, just wait till I get my things off and I’ll fix a pitcher of lemonade.”
“Let me do it, Mother,” said Guinevere, eagerly; “I often do it at school.”
[p77]
“I’d hate to drink what you make,” said Mrs. Gusty, waving her aside. “You show Mr. Opp in the parlor. No; I’ll open the shutters: you’d get your hands dirty.” She bustled about with that tyrannical capability that reduces every one near it to a state of helpless dependence.
The parlor was cool and dark, and Mr. Opp felt around for a chair while the refractory shutter was being opened. When at last a shaft of light was admitted, it fell full upon a sable frame which hung above the horse-hair sofa, and inclosed a glorified certificate of the births, marriages, and deaths in the house of Gusty. Around these written data was a border realistically depicting the seven ages of man and culminating in a legend of gold which read
From the Cradle to the Grave.
While Mr. Opp was standing before this work of art, apparently deeply interested, he was, in reality, peeping through a crack in the shutter. The [p78] sunlight was still filtering through the honeysuckle vines, making dancing, white patches on the porch, the bees were humming about the blossoms, and Miss Guinevere Gusty was still sitting in the hammock, her chin in her palms, gazing down the road.
When Mrs. Gusty returned, she bore a glass pitcher of lemonade, a plate of crisp gingersnaps, and a tumbler of crushed ice, all of which rested upon a tray which was covered with her strawberry centerpiece, a mark of distinction which, unfortunately, was lost upon her guest.
Mr. Opp, being a man of business, plunged at once into his subject, presenting the matter so eloquently and using so much more persuasion than was necessary that he overshot the mark. Mrs. Gusty was not without business sagacity herself, and when Mr. Opp met a possible objection before it had ever occurred to her, she promptly made use of the suggestion.