Roberts, at whom she glances with misgiving as she runs out, holding the parcels on his knees with both elbows and one hand, and contriving with the help of his chin to get his magazine open again: “No, no; I won’t, my dear.” He loses himself in his reading, while people come and go restlessly. A gentleman finally drops into the seat beside him, and contemplates his absorption with friendly amusement.
II. ROBERTS AND WILLIS CAMPBELL
Campbell: “Don’t mind me, Roberts.”
Roberts, looking up: “Heigh? What! Why, Willis! Glad to see you—”
Campbell: “Now that you do see me, yes, I suppose you are. What have you got there that makes you cut all your friends?” He looks at Roberts’s open page. “Oh! Popular Science Monthly. Isn’t Agnes a little afraid of your turning out an agnostic? By-the-way, where is Agnes?”
Roberts: “She left her purse at Stearns’s, and she’s gone back after it. Where’s Amy?”
Campbell: “Wherever she said she wouldn’t be at the moment. I expected to find her here with you and Agnes. What time did you say your train started?”
Roberts. “At ten minutes to four. And, by-the-way—I’d almost forgotten it—I must keep an eye out for the cook Agnes has been engaging. She was to meet us here before half-past two, and I shall have to receive her. You mustn’t tell Amy; Agnes doesn’t want her to know she’s been changing cooks; and I’ve got to be very vigilant not to let her give us the slip, or you won’t have any dinner to-night.”
Campbell: “Is that so? Well, that interests me. Were you expecting to find her in the Pop. Sci.?”