He passed the next hour mechanically, made several sales, of which he was hardly aware, and at the end of the hour, he returned. She was waiting for him. He smothered his interest, and told her the story in brief.
"Oh, that's fine!" she exclaimed, in an ecstasy of delight, when he had finished. "When do you deliver?"
"Any time," he replied; "but I have several in this neighborhood for the first. Could you take yours then?" As he finished, he looked at her strangely. His thoughts went back to a place and a person he had almost forgotten. (?)
She looked back at him, smiled, became uneasy, apparently she did not know how to take him. Then she asked softly: "Why do you look at me like that?" And then he came out of it, and replied candidly:
"I don't know," he started to say, "because you remind me of one I once knew—and loved." The very thought of it, however, now pained him. However, he dismissed these thoughts from his mind, and was normal again.
She appeared as though she would like to say more on the subject, but instead she added: "Have you been selling the book long?"
"Ever since publication," he admitted frankly.
The past lingered with him for some time, but it was temporarily forgotten, when he had returned to the office, and noted Slim's success.
"You're there, Professor," he beamed, while the other assumed an air of modesty.
A few days later—and he was apparently successful in the meantime—Slim said to Wyeth: "I want you to go with me tomorrow. I've found a 'nest.'"