Freeman gave her the first admiring glance he had bestowed on her for many days.
“Et, you'll do,” he said. “I'm almost proud to be a son of such a mother. You sure are a fixer.”
“Please, don't be funny,” she begged again. “It is not ended yet. I still have the money to pay. I don't suppose I can expect you to help? Even a little, Freeman?”
“Not a bit, mother dear,” he said and turned to wait on two girls who had just entered.
At the boarding-house Henrietta learned that Lem was still sleeping and that Judge Bruce had postponed the trial of Saint Harvey of Riverbank and had sent him to the lock-up to await Lem's recovery. Henrietta ran up to see how Lem was faring, stopped in her own room to freshen herself, and then hurried down. Lorna had not reached the house yet, but Gay had come over. Henrietta embraced her gayly.
“You dear!” she said. “I just want you. I'm going over to see Judge Bruce about Lem and I want you to go with me. It will be like taking him a rose moist with dew. I can't imagine how you ever manage to come from a day of teaching so bright and beaming.”
Gay did not tell her that she had stopped at Alberson's for a soda and that Freeman had been, for him, unusually nice and politely lover-like.
“And how is Miss Susan?” Gay asked. “About Lem, I mean. How does she feel toward him?”
“Still sour,” Henrietta said. “That's one trouble with such good good women. They are hard on mortals. Come.”
They went across the street and down past Gay's home to the Bruce house. The old justice of the peace had not reached home yet, but he was expected, his wife said, and Carter Bruce came out on the porch.