He crossed University Square and walked out Meridian Street to Fitch's
house. The lawyer came downstairs in his shirt sleeves with a legal
envelope in his hand.
"Glad to see you, Harwood. I'm packing up; going to light out in the
morning and get in on the end of my family's vacation. They've moved out
of Maine into the Berkshires and the boys are going back to college
without coming home. I see the 'Advertiser' has been after you. How do
you like your job?"
"I'm not scared," Dan replied. "It's all very amusing and my moral
character hasn't suffered so far."
Fitch eyed him critically.
"Well, I haven't time to talk to you, but here's something I wish you'd
do for me. I have a quit-claim deed for Mrs. Owen to sign. I forgot to
tell one of the boys in the office to get her acknowledgment, but you're
a notary, aren't you? I've just been telephoning her about it. You know
who she is? Come to think of it, she's Bassett's aunt-in-law. You're not
a good Hoosier till you know Aunt Sally. I advise you to make yourself
solid with her. I don't know what she's doing in town just now, but her
ways are always inscrutable."
Dan was soon ringing the bell at Mrs. Owen's. Mrs. Owen was out, the
maid said, but would be back shortly. Dan explained that he had come
from Mr. Fitch, and she asked him to walk into the parlor and wait.
Sylvia Garrison and her grandfather had been at Montgomery since their
visit to Waupegan and were now in Indianapolis for a day on their way to
Boston. The Delaware Street house had been closed all summer. The floors
were bare and the furniture was still jacketed in linen. Sylvia rose as
Harwood appeared at the parlor door.
"Pardon me," said Dan, as the maid vanished. "I have an errand with Mrs.
Owen and I'll wait, if you don't mind?"
"Certainly. Mrs. Owen has gone out to make a call, but she will be back
soon. She went only a little way down the street. Please have a chair."
She hesitated a moment, not knowing whether to remain or to leave the
young man to himself. Dan determined the matter for her by opening a
conversation on the state of the weather.
"September is the most trying month of the year. Just when we're all
tired of summer, it takes its last fling at us."
"It has been very warm. I came over from Montgomery this afternoon and
it was very dusty and disagreeable on the train."
"From Montgomery?" repeated Dan, surprised and perplexed. Then, as it
dawned upon him that this was the girl who had opened the door for him
at Professor Kelton's house in Montgomery when he had gone there with a
letter from Fitch, "You see," he said, "we've met before, in your own
house. You very kindly went off to find some one for me--and didn't come
back; but I passed you on the campus as I was leaving."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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