When I assisted her to remove her coat, can I be blamed for feasting my eyes on the beautiful bust and shoulders with which nature had endowed her?
We chatted idly on the topics of the day as we sipped our chocolate, and when we had finished I handed her my card, saying, “If you ever need services in my line, I shall be pleased to render them.”
She thanked me and said as she read “Attorney at Law,” “I might have been grateful for your proffered aid a few years ago, but now, thank God, I do not need such aid, and I hope I shall never need it.”
Then she handed me her card. “Mrs. Geoffrey Nye Melville.” As I read I could not restrain the exclamation that arose to my lips.
“Why, I once had a friend by that name who was an official on the St. Paul road. He and I were the best of friends in St. Paul five years ago. I was at that time their attorney.”
“It is certainly my husband whom you know,” she said, “and you must come and call on us at your earliest convenience.”
I thanked her and on the strength of my friendship for her husband asked to escort her to the train.
I was not long in taking advantage of her invitation, and felt doubly free to do so, inasmuch as her husband had hunted me up the very next day after our meeting, and had insisted on my coming as soon as possible.
It happened that the night I called her husband was away, having been unexpectedly summoned to St. Paul on business.