“He's a good fellow,” I said, to please her. She worshipped the cashier, a fact of which all Denboro was aware, and which caused gossip to report that she did the courting for the two.
She blushed and smiled.
“He thinks a lot of you,” she observed. “He's always talking to me about you. It's a good thing you're a man or I should be jealous.”
I smiled. “I seem to be talked about generally, just now,” said I.
“Are you? Oh, you mean about the Shore Lane. Yes, Pa can't make you out about that. He says you've got something up your sleeve and he hasn't decided what it is. I asked George what Pa meant and he just laughed. He said whatever you had in your sleeve was your affair and, if he was any judge of character, it would stay there till you got ready to shake it out. He always stood up for you, even before the Shore Lane business happened. I think he likes you better than any one else in Denboro.”
“Present company excepted, of course.”
“Oh, of course. If that wasn't excepted I should REALLY be jealous. Then,” more seriously, “Roscoe, does it seem to you that George is worried or troubled about something lately?”
I thought of Taylor's sudden change of expression that day in the bank, and of his remark that he wished he had my chance. But I concealed my thoughts.
“The prospect of marriage is enough to make any man worried, isn't it?” I asked. “I imagine he realizes that he isn't good enough for you.”
There was sarcasm in this remark, sarcasm of which I should have been ashamed. But she took it literally and as a compliment. She looked at me reproachfully.