“He knew my father,” added Sylvia.
“A particular friend,” said Peterson. And then, the lines of mirth on his face becoming a little less rigid and the color a little less ruddy, he added to Sylvia: “Doesn’t your father occasionally talk about his old friend Peterson?”
Harboro interrupted. “At any rate, you probably don’t know that she is Mrs. Harboro now.”
Peterson appeared to be living entirely within himself for the moment. He might have made you think of the Trojan Horse—innocuous without, but teeming with belligerent activity within. He seemed to be laughing maliciously, though without movement or noise. Then he was all frank joyousness again. “Good!” he exclaimed. He smote Harboro on the shoulder. “Good!” He stood apart, vigorously erect, childishly pleased. “Enjoying a holiday?” he asked.
And when Harboro nodded he became animated again. “You’re both going to take dinner with me—over at the Internacional. We’ll celebrate. I’ve got to take my train out in an hour—I’ve got a train now, Harboro.” (Harboro had noted his conductor’s uniform.) “We’ll just have time. We can have a talk.”
Harboro recalled a score of fellows he had known up and down the line, with most of whom he had gotten out of touch. Peterson would know about some of them. He realized how far he had been removed from the spontaneous joys of the railroad career since he had been in the office. And Peterson had always been a friendly chap, with lots of good points.
“Should you like it, Sylvia?” he asked.
She had liked Peterson, too. He had always been good-natured and generous. He had seemed often almost to understand.... “I think it would be nice,” she replied. She was afraid there was a note of guilt in her voice. She wished Harboro had refused to go, without referring the matter to her.
“I could telephone to Antonia,” he said slowly. It seemed impossible to quicken his pulses in any way. “She needn’t get anything ready.”
“I could do it,” suggested Sylvia. She felt she’d rather not be left alone with Peterson. “I could use Madame Boucher’s telephone.”