“Thank you for bringing it.”
He looked at her hopefully, as if he thought and wished that she might have something more to say. But she seemed not to be aware of this glance, and sat with her eyes fixed sorrowfully upon the floor.
“Well, I expect I better be gettin' back to the office,” he said, rising desperately. “I told—I told my partner I'd be back at two o'clock, and I guess he'll think I'm a poor business man if he catches me behind time. I got to walk the chalk a mighty straight line these days—with THAT fellow keepin' tabs on me!”
Mary rose with him. “I've always heard YOU were the hard driver.”
He guffawed derisively. “Me? I'm nothin' to that partner o' mine. You couldn't guess to save your life how he keeps after me to hold up my end o' the job. I shouldn't be surprised he'd give me the grand bounce some day, and run the whole circus by himself. You know how he is—once he goes AT a thing!”
“No,” she smiled. “I didn't know you had a partner. I'd always heard—”
He laughed, looking away from her. “It's just my way o' speakin' o' that boy o' mine, Bibbs.”
He stood then, expectant, staring out into the hall with an air of careless geniality. He felt that she certainly must at least say, “How IS Bibbs?” but she said nothing at all, though he waited until the silence became embarrassing.
“Well, I guess I better be gettin' down there,” he said, at last. “He might worry.”
“Good-by—and thank you,” said Mary.