A Touch of Sun, and Other StoriesFoote, Mary Hallock
General
A Touch of Sun, and Other Stories
Foote, Mary Hallock
United States -- Social life and customs -- 20th century -- Fiction
Tom and the other Mr. Harshaw are smoking in the dining-room, and Tom is
talking endlessly--what about I can't imagine, unless he is giving this
young record-breaker his opinion of his extraordinary conduct. But I must
begin at the beginning.
Mrs. Percifer wired us from New York the day the bride-elect started, and
_she_ was to wire us from Ogden, which she did. I went to the train to meet
her, and I told Tom to be on the watch for the bridegroom, who would come
in from his ranch on the Snake River, by wagon or on horseback, across
country from Ten Mile. To come by rail he'd have had to go round a hundred
miles or so, by Mountain Home. An American would have done it, of course,
and have come in with her on the train; but the Percifers plainly expected
no such wild burst of enthusiasm from him.
The train was late. I walked and walked the platform; some of the people
who were waiting went away, but I dared not leave my post. I fell to
watching a spurt of dust away off across the river toward the mesa. It
rolled up fast, and presently I saw a man on horseback; then I didn't see
him; then he had crossed the bridge and was pounding down the track-side
toward the depot. He pulled up and spoke to a trainman, and after that he
walked his horse as if he was satisfied.
This is Harshaw, I thought, and a very pretty fellow, but not in the
least like an Idaho legislator. I can't say that I care for the sort
of Englishman who is so prompt to swear allegiance to our flag; they
never do unless they want to go in for government land, or politics, or
something that has nothing to do with any flag. But this youngster looked
ridiculously young. I simply knew he was coming for that girl, and that
he had no ulterior motives whatever. He was ashy-white with dust--hair,
eyebrows, eyelashes, and his fair little mustache all powdered with it;
his corduroys, leggings, and hat all of a color. I saw no baggage, and I
wondered what he expected to be married in. He leaned on his horse dizzily
a moment when he first got out of the saddle, and the poor beast stretched
his fore legs, and rocked with the gusts of his panting, his sides going
in and out like a pair of bellows. The young fellow handed him over to a
man to take to the stables, and I saw him give him a regular bridegroom's
tip. He's all right, I said to myself, and Tom _was_ horrid to call him
a "chump." He beat himself off a bit, and went in and talked to the
ticket-agent. They looked at their watches.
"I don't think you'll have time to go uptown," said the ticket-man.
Harshaw came out then, and _he_ began to walk the platform, and to stare
down the track toward Nampa; so I sat down. Presently he stopped, and
raised his hat, and asked if I was Mrs. Daly, a friend of Mrs. Percifer of
London and New York.
Not to be boastful, I said that I knew Mrs. Percifer.
"Then," said he, "we are here on the same errand, I think."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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