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Tarkington, Booth, 1869-1946

"The Gentleman from Indiana"

"
"Oh, but they are not all of Philadelphia----" He left the sentence,
smilingly.
"And yet somebody said, 'The further West I travel the more convinced I am
the Wise Men came from the East.'"
"Yes," he answered. "'From' is the important word in that."
"It was a girl from Southeast Cottonbridge, Massachusetts," said Helen,
"who heard I was from Indiana and asked me if I didn't hate to live so far
away from things." There was a pause, while she leaned out of the window
with her face aside from him. Then she remarked carelessly, "I met her at
Winter Harbor."
"Do you go to Winter Harbor?" he asked.
"We have gone there every summer until this one, for years. Have you
friends who go there?"
"I had--once. There was a classmate of mine from Rouen----"
"What was his name? Perhaps I know him." She stole a glance at him. His
face had fallen into sad lines, and he looked like the man who had come up
the aisle with the Hon. Kedge Halloway. A few moments before he had seemed
another person entirely.
"He's forgotten me, I dare say. I haven't seen him for seven years; and
that's a long time, you know. Besides, he's 'out in the world,' where
remembering is harder. Here in Plattville we don't forget."
"Were you ever at Winter Harbor?"
"I was--once. I spent a very happy day there long ago, when you must have
been a little girl.


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