"Mrs. Anderson has me on her Labor Legislation Committee." She smiled
gently, the eyelids nearing one another in unconscious grace. "I tried
to interest 'Thea in it; one meeting tired her out."
He had a fleeting vision of volatile Nell or finicky Sue reading a
mining report. Evidently this Miss Lauderdale was something of a
person. Of course, it wasn't exactly a woman's work, unless her charm
earned it as a unique prerogative.
A contented smile lengthened his lips. "We treat our miners pretty well,
in this state."
"Yes, that is the general impression. I wonder if you've gone into the
matter very thoroughly?" She was coolly critical; he felt a bit
shriveled under her friendly gaze. "The South is backward, in some
things; but it's waking up. You went to Harvard, didn't you?"
"Yale Sheff."
"Oh, that's better. I have a brother prepping at Laurenceville; he'll go
to Sheff or Massachusetts Tech."
"Better, you say? Just how?"
"Yale at least talks about democracy." Her phrases were astonishingly
direct, her intonations warm and enthusiastic.
"Did you go to college?" Pelham wondered.
She shrugged ever so slightly. "No; a finishing school--Ogontz. Don't
mention it, please. Tell me something of your work."
Her leading questions were beginning to reveal his blundering vacuity
about labor conditions on the mountain, when Dorothy fluffed out. Her
sharp eyes noticed at once his sheepish interest. "Jane's been boring
you with a discussion of the labor question, foreign and domestic, I'm
sure! I can't convert her. She'll worm everything you know out of you in
half an hour, I warn you."
Pelham agreed, a bit chagrined. "Yes.... She was just telling me what I
didn't know about my men."
Jane's lips curved open into a smile, friendly and somehow approving.
"You'll learn, I think."
Dorothy yawned in intimate boredom, "An apt pupil, no doubt.... I
thought this was the day of the great fete, Pelham."
"It is," he smiled. "They are at this moment enjoying lemonade and
lettuce sandwiches."
Dorothy looked puzzled; Jane's cheeks crinkled appreciatively.
The older woman turned to the girl with ruffled rudeness. "Stay on for
supper, Jeanne?"
The other shook her head. "I must run along. Choir practice to-night,"
with a mischievous dimple.
"Religious all of a sudden?"
"The rector flourishes in my spiritual presence."
"How is his new reverence?"
Her mouth twisted piquantly. "Mushy.... Nice boy, though. Coming by
to-morrow?"
"Between three and four."
"So long.... Good night, Mr. Mine Superintendent."
Pelham convoyed her to the steps, doubly unwilling to let her go, as he
reflected on her fresh charm, and the blind alley of the other woman's
amorousness. "I enjoyed our talk, Miss Lauderdale. Could the course
continue?"
"I'm always glad to have a human being to talk to. I'm staying with the
Andersons; the number's in the phone book."
Thoughtfully he returned to the porch, and a cretonned wicker chair,
ignoring the message of the partly-occupied couch.