“Oh, Mr. Cope must know a great deal about him, or he’d never signed him for the team. I’d really like to ask Mr. Cope some questions.”
“Don’t! If you do that, if you’re not careful, you’ll have people gossiping. You know how easy it is to start gossip in a small country town.”
She tossed her head a bit. “Yes, I know; but if they want to gossip over nothing at all, I’ll not attempt to deprive them of the pleasure.”
“These baseball players,” he went on, “always think they can mash any country girl they choose. I understand that they joke and boast of their conquests, and laugh about the silly girls who get stuck on them. You should have foresight enough—”
“I beg your pardon, Mr. King!” she interrupted frigidly. “You seem to presume that I’m anxious to pick up a flirtation with a baseball player. I assure you that you are mistaken; but, even if you were not, you could not choose a better method of making yourself offensive.”
He saw he had made a false step; in vain he tried to remedy the error. She would not quarrel, nor would she discuss the matter further, maintaining silence, save when it became absolutely necessary, out of politeness, to make some answer to what he was saying. Cursing himself for a blunderer, he apologized as well as he could, speaking of their long friendship, and his natural interest in her, which might have led any one into such an indiscretion. At the door of the parsonage they parted, he still humble and penitent, she still cool and formal.
“I’m a fool!” he growled as he strode away. “I should have known better. I did know better, but I lost my head when I saw him fawning upon her—when I saw her, poppy-cheeked, looking after him. If he takes a fancy to cut in on my preserves, he’ll find the going rough. I’ll guarantee he has a vulnerable spot, and I’ll locate it.”
CHAPTER XIX
THE AGITATION IN BANCROFT
More than a hundred men, laborers and mill hands, bearing new brooms, recently bought in grocery stores, and making a tremendous noise with tin horns, cow bells, and voices, were marching down the main street of Bancroft.