For one thing, the white, starched collar he wore irritated him, choked
him, reddening his face and bulging his eyes. The starched shirt had a
pernicious habit of tightly sticking to him, the seams chafing his skin.
The ready-made suit he had bought at Kansas City was too small, and he
could feel his shoulders bulging through the arms of the coat, while the
trousers—at the hips and the knees—were stretched until he feared the
cloth would not stand the strain.
The shoes were tight, and the derby hat—he glowered humorously at it in
the rack above his head and gazed longingly at the suitcase at his feet,
into which he had crammed the clothing he had discarded and which he had
replaced at the suggestion of his banker in Kansas City. Cowboy rigging
was not uncommon to Kansas City, the banker had told him, but
still—well, if a man was wealthy, and wished to make an impression, it
might be wise to make the change.
Not in years had Taylor worn civilized clothing, and he was fully
determined that before reaching his home town he would resume the
clothing to which he was accustomed—and throw the new duds out of a
window. He reddened over an imaginary picture of himself descending from
the train in his newly acquired rigging to endure the humorous comments
of his friends. Old Ben Mullarky, for instance, would think he had gone
loco—and would tell him so. Yes, the new clothes were doomed; some
ragged overland specimen of the genus “hobo” would probably find them
or, if not, they would clutter up the right-of-way as the sad memento of
a mistake he had made during a fit of momentary weakness.
As a matter of fact the girl had noticed Taylor. A girl will notice men,
unconsciously. Sitting at her window even now, she was thinking of him.
She was not aware that she had studied him, or that she had even glanced
at him. But despite her lack of interest in him she had a picture of him
in mind, and her thoughts dwelt upon him.
She, too, had been aware that Taylor’s clothes did not fit him. She had
noticed the bulging shoulders, the tight trousers, the shoes, squeaking
with newness, when once he had passed through the car to go out upon the
platform. She had noticed him screwing his neck around in the collar;
she had seen him hunch his shoulders intolerantly; she had seen that the
trousers were too short; that he looked like an awkward farmer or
homesteader abroad on a pleasure trip, and decidedly uncomfortable in
the unaccustomed attire.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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