Mr. Opp’s face clouded. “Now that was a very unfortunate thing about Clark. He was sent down by the Union Syndicate of New York city to make a report on the region, and he didn’t get the correct ideas in the case at all. If they hadn’t sent such a poor man, the whole affair might have been settled by now.”
“Wasn’t his report favorable?” asked Hinton.
[p235]
“He hasn’t made it yet,” said Mr. Opp; “but he let drop sundry casual remarks to me that showed he wasn’t a man of fine judgment at all. I went over the ground with him, and pointed out some of the places where we calculated on drilling; but he was so busy making measurements and taking notes that he didn’t half hear what I was saying.”
“He stayed at Our Hotel,” said Mrs. Gusty. “Mr. Tucker said he had as mean a face as ever he looked into.”
“Who said so?” asked Hinton.
She tossed her head and flipped her duster at him, but it was evident that she was not displeased.
“By the way, Mr. Opp,” she said, “I’m thinking about letting Guin-never come home week after next. Guess you ain’t sorry to hear that.”
On the contrary, Mr. Opp was overcome with joy. Letters were becoming less and less satisfying, and the problem suggested by Mrs. Gusty was still waiting solution.
[p236]
“If you’ll just mention the date,” he said, trying to keep his countenance from expressing an undue amount of rapture, “I’ll make a business trip down to Coreyville on purpose to accompany her back home.”
But Mrs. Gusty declined to be explicit. She deemed it unwise to allow a mere man to know as much as she did upon any given subject.