She only said: “You are very kind,” and then he lifted his hat, and left her at Mrs. Stutt’s gate.
He deliberately and literally believed, as he walked down the street—directly to Green’s—that he was the happiest man in the world. For that matter, it is not impossible that he was. He was absolutely innocent of conscious hyperbole in saying, “It would be worth a life-time of trouble only to have seen her; and I know her and am able to do her a service!”
He scored one advantage in having seen Miss Northrop early; he saw Green before Garvey had talked with him. The report of the quarrel had by no means failed to reach “The American Eagle,” and when Strong came in Uncle Billy Green was just expressing himself with regard to Coakley:
“Of course the Judge’ll provide for his man when he gets a chance. That’s where he’s sharp. And if Coakley is smart enough to suit Judge Garvey, he’s smart enough to teach my children—that’s what I say.”
A private audience with him would have been merely postponing the hour of general discussion, so Strong made a brief exposition of his case—gently enough, but with considerable force—then and there, displaying the letter he carried by way of proof. He hardly expected to elicit anything but the usual laugh and comment on the Judge’s smartness. But there was a marked seriousness of tone in the remarks when he ended.
“Well, that is pretty rough.”
“Yes, sir, that’s going too far. The Judge ought to know where to stop. I don’t stand by no man when it comes to a shabby trick on an unprotected school-marm.”
“A real lady, too—I could see that when she went by with you, Strong.”
Even Green said, uneasily, “No, I shouldn’t think the Judge ought to do that, quite.”
It was evident that Green’s Ferry drew its lines as much as any other town. The moral support it offered Strong was mainly negative, however, and Green, after several alternate conversations with his two fellow trustees during this Saturday evening, went off early Sunday morning to visit his married daughter at the old Meeker place, leaving word that they must fix it between them. Judge Garvey closed the somewhat stormy conference of Saturday evening with a promise to break down Miss Northrop’s school in a week, and Strong’s paper in a month. “Do you flatter yourself I should not have had your contemptible sheet in powder under my feet, sir, before this, if I had thought it worth the attention?” Nevertheless, as there was nothing on which the Judge prided himself more than on his invariable civility to ladies (“the courtly Judge” was his favorite phrase in writing up a local notice of any affair at which he had been present), Strong, having possession of the school-house key, was able to put Miss Northrop into possession on Monday morning without opposition. The Judge even visited her during the day and addressed the school with extreme suavity.