"I shall improve the acquaintance, however," the latter said. "I am very curious to know how he looks, aren't you?"
"Yes, but I do not suppose I ever shall," Nattie answered.
"Then you—I beg pardon, but you never expect to see him?" queried
Quimby, with great earnestness.
"In all probability we never shall meet. I think I should be dreadfully embarrassed if we should," Nattie replied, as she handed the day's cash to the boy who just then came after it. "Face to face we would really be strangers to each other."
Quimby evinced more satisfaction at this than the occasion seemed to warrant, as Nattie noticed, with some surprise, but several customers claiming her attention, all at once, and all in a hurry, she was kept too busy for some time, to think upon the cause.
As soon as she was at leisure, Miss Archer, with the remark that they had made an unpardonably long call, arose to go.
But you must certainly come again, "Nattie said, cordially, already feeling her to be an old friend.
"Indeed I shall," she answered, in the genial way peculiar to her. "You have a double attraction here, you know. Can I say good-by to 'C?'"
"I fear not, as the wire is busy," replied Nattie. "But I will say it for you as soon as possible."
"Yes, tell him, please, that I will see him—I mean, hear the clatter he makes again soon: You, I shall see at the hotel, I hope, now we have met."