“He’s round here some place. Mr. Hinton! Oh, here you are! Let me make you acquainted with Mr. Opp; he’s going to take you out to his house for the night.”
No sooner had Hinton’s hand been released from Mr. Opp’s cordial grasp than he felt that gentleman’s arm thrust [p178] through his, and was aware of being rapidly conducted down the steps and out to the vehicle.
“On no possible account,” Mr. Opp was saying, with Hinton’s grip in one hand and two umbrellas in the other, “would I have allowed myself to be late, except that it was what you might consider absolutely necessary. Now, you get right in; just take all that robe. No, the grip can go right here between my feet. We trust that you will not regard the weather in any ways synonymous with the state of our feelings of welcome.”
Mr. Hinton remarked rather shortly that the weather never mattered to him one way or another.
“That’s precisely like myself,” Mr. Opp went on. “I come of very sturdy, enduring stock. For a man of my size I doubt if you’d find a finer constitution in the country. You wouldn’t particularly think it to look at me, now would you?”
Hinton looked at the small, stooping [p179] figure, and at the peaked, sallow face, and said rather sarcastically that he would not.
“Strong as an ox,” declared Mr. Opp.
Just here the horse stumbled, and they were jerked violently forward.
Mr. Opp apologized. “Just at present we are having a little difficulty with our country roads. We have taken the matter up in ‘The Opp Eagle’ last week. All these things take time to regulate, but we are getting there. This oil boom is going to revolutionize things. It’s my firm and abiding conviction that we are on the eve of a great change. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if this town grew to be one of the principalest cities on the Ohio River.”
“To be a worthy eyrie for your ‘Eagle’?” suggested Hinton.