“Well, that’s all right then,” Rankin answered, blinking his eyes because the smoke from his cigar had persisted in creeping into them. “Didn’t have any trouble about it, did you?”
“No, none to speak of,” said Garwood. He laughed, but it was a laugh with more of rue than mirth in it. “It only means a little more debt, that’s all.”
“Well,” said Rankin, nipping the wet and ragged end of his cigar with his teeth, “so long as you don’t have to mortgage the roof over your head you’re all right.”
The words of course struck a pain through Garwood’s heart, but he gave his laugh again as he answered:
“Well, I reckon it won’t come to that.”
“There’s one thing I’ve al’ays done, Jerry,” said Rankin, leaning over in a more confidential attitude, “and that’s this. I’ve al’ays drawed the line at the little woman and the kids; I’ve al’ays said I’d never compromise them or their future, and I say that so long’s a man don’t do that, he’s doin’ all right.”
For some reason that morning Rankin seemed to be in a soft and tender mood, and showed a desire to talk of his home and its interests. Perhaps it was because it was Sunday, and his wife had been dressing him for the day with as much maternal solicitude as she had dressed his children. Garwood would have preferred Rankin’s harsher and more careless note, and because it gave him a chance to get away, was glad when he remembered that he had promised his mother to go to church with her. He knew how gratifying this would be to her, for in her strict Sabbatarianism she had disliked his going down town at all that day; and then, too, he had felt that it would be a politic thing to do.
He went homeward, recalling, word by word, all of his conversation with Rankin, feeling a little hurt at what seemed to him Rankin’s coldness, troubled with suspicions and misgivings that he ascribed to the influence of Rankin’s strange manner, and without the peace of mind he thought he should feel, now that his election was assured.
He found his mother with her bonnet on, and her misshapen hands gloved and folded, in anxious waiting.
“What time does church begin?” he asked.