Miss Colton and I met again at the door of the bank a day or two later, just at closing time. Sam Wheeler had already gone and I left George at his desk, poring over papers and busily figuring. He was working over time much of late and explained his industry by the fact of his approaching marriage and his desire to make things easy for me to handle while he was on his brief wedding trip. I was not much alarmed by the prospect. He was to be gone but a week and I had become sufficiently familiar with the routine to feel confident in assuming the responsibility. Small, my predecessor, had a brother who had formerly been employed in the bank and was now out of work, and he was coming in to help during the cashier's absence. I was not worried by the prospect of being left in charge, but I was worried about George. He, so it seemed to me, had grown pale and thin. Also he was nervously irritable and not at all like his usual good-natured self. I tried to joke him into better humor, but he did not respond to my jokes. He seemed, too, to realize that his odd behavior was noticeable, for he said:
“Don't mind my crankiness, Ros. I've got so much on my mind that I'd be mean to my old grandmother, if I had one, I guess likely. Don't let my meanness trouble you; it isn't worth trouble.”
I laughed. “George,” I said, “if I ever dreamed of such a thing as getting married myself, you would scare me out of it. You ought to be a happy man, and act like one; instead you act as if you were about to be jailed.”
He caught his breath with a sort of gasp. Then, after a pause and without looking up, he asked slowly:
“Jailed? What in the world made you say that, Ros?”
“I said it because you act as if you were bound for state's prison instead of the matrimonial altar. George, what IS troubling you?”
“Troubling me? Why—why, nothing special, of course. Catching up with my work here makes me nervous and—and kind of absent-minded, I guess. Act absent-minded, don't I?”
He did, there was no doubt of that, but I did not believe it was his work which caused the absent-mindedness.
“If there is any trouble, George,” I said, earnestly; “if you're in any difficulty, personally, I shall be very glad to help you, if I can. I mean that.”
For a moment I thought he hesitated. Then he shook his head.