Parker's back. The 'bus
driver, Mr. Bennett, the proprietor of two attendant "cut-unders," and
three or four other worthies whom business, or the lack of it, called to
that locality, availed themselves of the shelter of the waiting-room, but
the gentlemen of the "Herald" were too agitated to be confined, save by
the limits of the horizon. They had reached the station half an hour
before train time, and consumed the interval in pacing the platform under
the cotton umbrella, addressing each other only in monosyllables. Those in
the waiting-room gossiped eagerly, and for the thousandth time, about the
late events, and the tremendous news concerning Fisbee. Judd Bennett
looked out through the rainy doorway at the latter with reverence and a
fine pride of townsmanship, declaring it to be his belief that Fisbee and
Parker were waiting for her at the present moment. It was a lady, and a
bird of a lady, too, else why should Cale Parker be wearing a coat, and be
otherwise dooded and fixed up beyond any wedding? Judd and his friends
were somewhat excited over Parker.
Fisbee was clad in his best shabby black, which lent an air of state to
the occasion, but Mr. Parker--Caleb Parker, whose heart, during his five
years of residence in Plattville, had been steel-proof against all the
feminine blandishments of the town, whose long, lank face had shown
beneath as long, and lanker, locks of proverbially uncombed hair, he who
had for weeks conspicuously affected a single, string-patched suspender,
who never, even upon the Sabbath day, wore a collar or blacked his shoes--
what aesthetic leaven had entered his soul that he donned not a coat alone
but also a waistcoat with checks?--and, more than _that_, a gleaming
celluloid collar?--and, more than that, a brilliant blue tie? What had
this iron youth to do with a rising excitement at train time and brilliant
blue ties?
Also, it might have been inquired if this parade of fashion had no
connection with the simultaneous action of Mr.
Pages:
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265