The only insignificant thing about Mr. Opp was himself. His slight, undeveloped body seemed to be in a chronic state of apology for failing properly to set off the glorious raiment wherewith it was [p6] clothed. His pock-marked face, wide at the temples, sloped to a small, pointed chin, which, in turn, sloped precipitously into a long, thin neck. It was Mr. Opp’s eyes, however, that one saw first, for they were singularly vivid, with an expression that made strangers sometimes pause in the street to ask him if he had spoken to them. Small, pale, and red of rim, they nevertheless held the look of intense hunger—hunger for the hope or the happiness of the passing moment.
As he came bustling down to the water’s-edge he held out a friendly hand to Jimmy Fallows.
“How are you, Jimmy?” he said in a voice freighted with importance. “Hope I haven’t kept you waiting long. Several matters of business come up at the last and final moment, and I missed the morning train.”
Jimmy, who was pouring gasolene into a tank in the launch, treated the ferryman to a prodigious wink.
“Oh, not more’n four or five hour,” he said, casting side glances of mingled [p7] scorn and admiration at Mr. Opp’s attire. “It is a good thing it was the funeral you was tryin’ to get to instid of the death-bed.”
“Oh, that reminds me,” said Mr. Opp, suddenly exchanging his air of cheerfulness for one of becoming gravity—“what time is the funeral obsequies going to take place?”
“Whenever we git there,” said Jimmy, pushing off the launch and waving his hand to the ferryman. “You’re one of the chief mourners, and I’m the undertaker; there ain’t much danger in us gettin’ left.”
Mr. Opp deposited his baggage carefully on the seat, and spread his coat across the new grip to keep it from getting splashed.
“How long was Mr. Moore sick?” he asked, fanning himself with his hat.
“Well,” said Jimmy, “he was in a dangerous and critical condition for about twenty-one years, accordin’ to his own account. I been seein’ him durin’ that time on a average of four times a [p8] day, and last night when I seen him in his coffin it was the first time the old gentleman failed to ask me to give him a drink on account of his poor health.”