“Oh, I mustn’t stop—so terribly far back to town, and so late—shouldn’t have walked so far.”
“You don’t step your foot out of this house tonight, Brother! You stay right here!”
When Lulu saw him, her tranced eyes said, “And did you come all this way for me?”
She was more softly desirable than he had fancied.
Warmed and swollen with fried eggs and admiration, he sat with them in the parlor narrating more or less possible incidents of his campaigns for righteousness in Kansas, till Mr. Bains began to yawn.
“By golly, ten minutes after nine! Don’t know how it got to be so late. Ma, guess it’s about time to turn in.”
Elmer lunged gallantly:
“Well, you can go to bed, but we young folks are going to sit up and tell each other our middle names! I’m no preacher on week days—I’m just a student, by Jiminy!”
“Well—— If you call this a week day. Looks like a week night to me, Brother!”
Everybody laughed.