"Thank you so much, Cap'n Snow," she says. "Then we shall be friends, sha'n't we? Except in business, I mean."
"I hope so—sartin," says I. "Now it ain't none of my affairs, of course, but I am curious. How did you ever happen to take the agency for—for window screens?"
That made her serious right off. She might smile at other things, but not at her trade; that was life and death for sure.
"I took it," she says, "for several reasons. My mother died recently and I was left alone. My means were not sufficient to support me. I have done office work, typewritin', and so on, for some years; but I felt that the opportunities in the positions I held were limited and I determined to take up sellin'—that is where the larger returns are. Don't you think so?"
"Oh, yes—sartin."
"Yes. I knew Mr. Meyer slightly in a business way. I took the Eureka screen and sold it on commission about Boston for a time. Then I applied for the Ostable County agency and got it—that's all."
"I see," says I. "Yes, yes. Well, I must say that, for a girl, you—"
She interrupted me quick.
"I don't see that my bein' a girl has anything to do with it," she says. "And in this agreement of ours, if it is made, I don't wish the difference of sex considered at all. This is a business proposition and sex has nothin' to do with it. Is that plain?"
"Yes," says I, considerin', "it's plain; but I ain't sure that—"