"That's an advantage," he admitted; "but on the peak no one expects vegetables—it's still a matter of ham and eggs."
"Is that so?" she asked, concernedly.
"'Tis indeed. I live at the Palace Hotel, and I know. However, 'tis not of that I intended to speak, Mrs. Gilman. I'm distressed to see you working so hard this warm weather. You need a rest—a vacation, I'm thinkin'."
"You're mighty neighborly, Captain, to say so, but I don't see any way of taking it."
"Furthermore, your daughter is too fine to be clerkin' here day by day. She should be in a home of her own."
"She ought to be in school," sighed the mother, "but I don't see my way to hiring anybody to fill her place—it would take a man to do her work."
"It would so. She's a rare little business woman. Let me see, how old is she?"
"Eighteen next November."
"She seems like a woman of twenty."
"I couldn't run for a week without her," answered the mother, rolling down her sleeves in acknowledgment that they had entered upon a real conversation.