“I wonder,” she said finally, “I do wonder why Cordie does not confide in me? Oh well,” she sighed, “I can only wait. The time will come.”
Had she but known it, Cordie had reasons enough; the strangest sort of reasons, too.
It was in the forenoon of that same day that a rather surprising thing happened, a thing that doubled the mystery surrounding the attractive young salesman, Laurie.
Lucile was delivering a book to a customer. Laurie was waiting at the desk for change and at the same time whispering to Cordie, when of a sudden his eyes appeared ready to start from his head as he muttered:
“There’s Sam!”
The next instant, leaving wrapped package, change and customer, he disappeared as if the floor had dropped from beneath him.
“Where’s Laurie?” Cordie asked a moment later. “His customer’s waiting for her change.”
Though Lucile didn’t know where he was, she was quite sure he would not return, at least he would not until a certain short, broad-shouldered man, who carried a large brief case and stood talking to Rennie, had left the section. She felt very sure that Laurie wished to escape meeting this man.
“That man must be Sam,” Lucile thought to herself as she volunteered to complete Laurie’s sale. “Now I wonder what makes him so much afraid of that man!
“He looks like a detective,” she thought to herself as she got a better look at him. “No, he smiles too much for that. Must be a salesman trying to get Rennie to buy more books.”