"Seventeenth and Canal Streets," he repeated, alert and businesslike. "Yes? It's to be a business building, then?"
"There's a building there now, but I'm going to pull that one down," said Cally. "I don't like it."
And at this moment it was that she saw consciousness burst into the unconscious; burst with the strong suddenness of an explosion.
"Seventeenth and Canal Streets!... That's the Heth Works corner!"
"That's the building I'm going to pull down. I--I've taken a dislike to it."
The tall young man came to his feet, slowly, as if hoisted from above by an invisible block and tackle. All in a moment, his face had become quite pale.
"What do you mean?" he asked, in a queer clipped voice.
"I mean ... I don't think you will have to say anything about my father in your articles.... We're going to build a new Works--now!"
He stood staring a second like a man of stone; and then turned abruptly from her and walked away. But in that second she saw that his petrifaction was already scattering, and his face wore the strangest look, like a kind of glory....
So Cally thought that he understood now; and that was all the reward she wanted. Sitting silent, she looked after his retreating back. She perceived, with a queer little twitching in her heart, that the polished spaces upon Mr. V.V.'s right elbow had thinned away into an unmistakable darning. And then it came over her quite suddenly that the reason he wore this suit to-day was probably that he had given his blue suit away, to one of his sick. She seemed quite sure that that was it. And oh, how like him, and like nobody else in the world, to give away his best one, and keep the patches for himself....