Mr.Price moistened his broom in a bucket of water."I see Tim Kelley on my way down street," he said."Tim said he run afoul of Laban along about ten last night.Said he cal'lated Labe was on his way.He was singin' 'Hyannis on the Cape' and so Tim figgered he'd got a pretty fair start already."The captain shook his head."Tut, tut, tut!" he muttered."Well, that means I'll have to do office work for the next week or so.
Humph! I declare it's too bad just now when I was countin' on him to--" He did not finish the sentence, but instead turned to his grandson and said: "Al, why don't you look around the hardware store here while I open the mail and the safe.If there's anything you see you don't understand Issy'll tell you about it."He went into the office.Albert sauntered listlessly to the window and looked out.So far as not understanding anything in the shop was concerned he was quite willing to remain in ignorance.It did not interest him in the least.A moment later he felt a touch on his elbow.He turned, to find Mr.Price standing beside him.
"I'm all ready to tell you about it now," volunteered the unsmiling Issy."Sweepin's all finished up."Albert was amused."I guess I can get along," he said.
"Don't worry."
"_I_ ain't worried none.I don't believe in worryin'; worryin'
don't do folks no good, the way I look at it.But long's Cap'n Lote wants me to tell you about the hardware I'd ruther do it now, than any time.Henry Cahoon's team'll be here for a load of lath in about ten minutes or so, and then I'll have to leave you.This here's the shelf where we keep the butts--hinges, you understand.
Brass along here, and iron here.Got quite a stock, ain't we."He took the visitor's arm in his mighty paw and led him from shelves to drawers and from drawers to boxes, talking all the time, so the boy thought, "like a catalogue." Albert tried gently to break away several times and yawned often, but yawns and hints were quite lost on his guide, who was intent only upon the business--and victim--in hand.At the window looking across toward the main road Albert paused longest.There was a girl in sight--she looked, at that distance, as if she might be a rather pretty girl--and the young man was languidly interested.He had recently made the discovery that pretty girls may be quite interesting; and, moreover, one or two of them whom he had met at the school dances--when the young ladies from the Misses Bradshaws' seminary had come over, duly guarded and chaperoned, to one-step and fox-trot with the young gentlemen of the school--one or two of these young ladies had intimated a certain interest in him.So the feminine possibility across the road attracted his notice--only slightly, of course; the sophisticated metropolitan notice is not easily aroused--but still, slightly.
"Come on, come on," urged Issachar Price."I ain't begun to show ye the whole of it yet...Eh? Oh, Lord, there comes Cahoon's team now! Well, I got to go.Show you the rest some other time.
So long...Eh? Cap'n Lote's callin' you, ain't he?"Albert went into the office in response to his grandfather's call to find the latter seated at an old-fashioned roll-top desk, piled with papers.
"I've got to go down to the bank, Al," he said."Some business about a note that Laban ought to be here to see to, but ain't.
I'll be back pretty soon.You just stay here and wait for me.You might be lookin' over the books, if you want to.I took 'em out of the safe and they're on Labe's desk there," pointing to the high standing desk by the window."They're worth lookin' at, if only to see how neat they're kept.A set of books like that is an example to any young man.You might be lookin' 'em over."He hurried out.Albert smiled condescendingly and, instead of looking over Mr.Keeler's books, walked over to the window and looked out of that.The girl was not in sight now, but she might be soon.At any rate watching for her was as exciting as any amusement he could think of about that dull hole.Ah hum! he wondered how the fellows were at school.
The girl did not reappear.Signs of animation along the main road were limited.One or two men went by, then a group of children obviously on their way to school.Albert yawned again, took the silver cigarette case from his pocket and looked longingly at its contents.He wondered what his grandfather's ideas might be on the tobacco question.But his grandfather was not there then...
and he might not return for some time...and...He took a cigarette from the case, tapped, with careful carelessness, its end upon the case--he would not have dreamed of smoking without first going through the tapping process--lighted the cigarette and blew a large and satisfying cloud.Between puffs he sang:
"To you, beautiful lady, I raise my eyes.
My heart, beautiful lady, To your heart cries:
Come, come, beautiful lady, To Par-a-dise, As the sweet, sweet--'"Some one behind him said: "Excuse me." The appeal to the beautiful lady broke off in the middle, and he whirled about to find the girl whom he had seen across the road and for whose reappearance he had been watching at the window, standing in the office doorway.He looked at her and she looked at him.He was embarrassed.She did not seem to be.
"Excuse me," she said: "Is Mr.Keeler here?"She was a pretty girl, so his hasty estimate made when he had first sighted her was correct.Her hair was dark, so were her eyes, and her cheeks were becomingly colored by the chill of the winter air.
She was a country girl, her hat and coat proved that; not that they were in bad taste or unbecoming, but they were simple and their style perhaps nearer to that which the young ladies of the Misses Bradshaws' seminary had worn the previous winter.All this Albert noticed in detail later on.Just then the particular point which attracted his embarrassed attention was the look in the dark eyes.
They seemed to have almost the same disturbing quality which he had noticed in his grandfather's gray ones.Her mouth was very proper and grave, but her eyes looked as if she were laughing at him.
