know. I guess you’ve heard about it—?” She let it trail off.
“Yes,” I said. “I hated to hear it. How is he now?”
“He’s a little better. That’s the reason I’m calling. He’d like to have you come out to the house tonight to talk over some business details. Do you think you could make it, around seven o’clock?”
“Sure,” I said.
“That’ll be fine, then. And would you mind telling the girl in the loan office, Miss—ah—“
“Harper,” I said. The lousy tramp. She just couldn’t resist it.
“Yes. That’s it. Miss Harper. He wants her to come too.”
“All right,” I said. “I’ll tell her.”
I went across the street. She was busy with a Negro who was making a payment on his loan. When she saw me waiting she waved the pencil at me and her eyes crinkled up in a smile. In a minute the Negro said, “Thank you, Miss Gloria,” and went out.
“Hello,” she said.
“You’re looking very pretty.” I paused. We were both always just a little awkward with each other when we first met.
“Do you like my new dress?”
I looked at it. It was blue with white sort of ruffles. ‘Yes,” I said. “Very much.”
She smiled. “It isn’t new. You’ve seen it four times.”
I shook my head. “I’ve never seen it at all.”
“You’re nice.” Then her face became serious and she said quietly, “It’s so awful about Mr. Harshaw, isn’t it?”
“Yes. But I just talked to Mrs. Harshaw, and I think he’s a little better. He wants us to come out there tonight. Something about the business. If you can make it, I’ll pick you up a little before seven.”
“All right, Harry. But he shouldn’t be trying to think about business now. What do you suppose he wants?”
“Probably just a report,” I said. “But there’s no telling. Maybe he’s going to sell out and retire.”
She didn’t answer for a minute. Then she asked, “Do you really think he will?”
Something in her voice made me turn and look at her. It still puzzled me after I left. She had seemed almost afraid. But why should she be? Even if she lost her job, which was unlikely, there were plenty of others.
It was dusk when I drove over to pick her up. She wasn’t quite ready, and I waited, talking about cars with the Robinsons on the front porch. When she came out she was very lovely in a white skirt and dark, long-sleeved blouse, and as we went down the walk and I helped her into the car I was conscious of a faint fragrance about her in the air.
The street going up past the filling station was deserted in the twilight, and just as we came to the oaks I stopped the car.
“Did you forget something, Harry?” she asked.
“No,” I said. “I didn’t forget it. This is just the first chance I’ve had to do it.” I took her face in my hands and kissed her.
When her eyes opened they smiled at me. There was just enough light to see them. They were enormous. “You mustn’t get lipstick on you. We’re going to a business conference.”
“The devil with business conferences. I just wanted to tell you something. Maybe I never told you before. You’re lovely; and you’re wonderful.”
“Now you’re making me lose interest in business.”
“I’ll tell you what,” I said. “We’ll sneak out right after we’ve voted our stock.”
She laughed. And then, as I started the car again, she said soberly, “I do hope he’s better, Harry. It’s so awful thinking of him that way.”
He was sitting up in a big chair in the living room, wearing pajamas and a seersucker robe. He looked old somehow. His face was a dirty gray and seemed thinner, though that might have been just imagination. The only things unchanged about him were the eyes. They were as frosty and tough as ever, and you somehow got the impression that his heart might kill him but it’d never scare him worth a damn.
She let us in. She was wearing a white summer dress and every ash-blonde curl was in place. Her face was heavily made up, but it didn’t quite cover up the faint shadows under the eyes. Climbing that sawdust pile was rough medicine, but apparently it’d worked. She was a tough baby. I saw her giving Gloria the inventory. No doubt she’d seen her before, but now she was putting her through the assay office a piece at a time. There was a thirty-looking-at-twenty-one appraisal in her eyes and she didn’t quite cover