“Did you—” she began, and hesitated. “Are you—”
“I thought—” he answered, still a little dazzled. “That is, I thought maybe—”
It was this tremendously important and significant conversation that the portly, white-haired lady interrupted. She appeared suddenly in the background, and regarded them with severe astonishment.
“Are you the plumber?” she inquired of Jerry, raising her eyebrows. “Run away, Lynn!”
“I don’t think so,” he answered absently, because he was watching Lynn “run away” as slowly as any healthy human being could well move.
“Indeed!” said she. “The plumber should be here.”
The inference evidently was that Jerry Sargent should have been the plumber.
“No,” he added, with a smothered sigh. “I just stopped in to see if there was anything you wanted done.”
“There are several things that I want done,” she replied; “but I trust I shall be able to find the proper workmen to do them. I need a plumber and a carpenter. Are you a carpenter?”
Now Jerry knew very well that she knew he wasn’t a carpenter, and that she simply wished to be obnoxious. On the spur of the moment, looking steadily at her, he answered:[Pg 174]