"Mrs. Anderson has me on her Labor Legislation Committee." She smiled gently, the eyelids nearing one another in unconscious grace. "I tried to interest 'Thea in it; one meeting tired her out."
He had a fleeting vision of volatile Nell or finicky Sue reading a mining report. Evidently this Miss Lauderdale was something of a person. Of course, it wasn't exactly a woman's work, unless her charm earned it as a unique prerogative.
A contented smile lengthened his lips. "We treat our miners pretty well, in this state."
"Yes, that is the general impression. I wonder if you've gone into the matter very thoroughly?" She was coolly critical; he felt a bit shriveled under her friendly gaze. "The South is backward, in some things; but it's waking up. You went to Harvard, didn't you?"
"Yale Sheff."
"Oh, that's better. I have a brother prepping at Laurenceville; he'll go to Sheff or Massachusetts Tech."
"Better, you say? Just how?"
"Yale at least talks about democracy." Her phrases were astonishingly direct, her intonations warm and enthusiastic.
"Did you go to college?" Pelham wondered.
She shrugged ever so slightly. "No; a finishing school—Ogontz. Don't mention it, please. Tell me something of your work."