"Have you been here long?" I asked finally, not being able to think of anything else to say.
"I've been here all day, I have," he stated. He resumed his scrutiny of Grandma, apparently pleased with her short, stocky figure.
"You ain't gonna stay here, be you?" Grandma asked him.
"Not here, I ain't, not for nothin'. I'm going back to Los Angeles tonight, I am, all right. Where you from?" he asked, indicating Grandma with a quick nod of his little head.
"I live in L.A. too," Grandma said, adding modestly, "I'm a fancy presser. I'm going back in a day or two."
The man seemed to be lost in thought. "If everything wasn't so expensive here, I'd buy you a meal, I would all right. But I'll tell you what. Give me your address, and I'll buy you a dinner next week in Los Angeles."
Grandma gasped and looked at me, half thrilled and half dismayed.
"Good Godfrey Mighty," she murmured.
"Go ahead," I whispered, knowing what she was worrying about. "Hellwig won't have to know anything about it."
"He'd be madder'n a wet hen," she hissed back.