You couldn't hire me to stay in Boston an hour longer than I have to."
Silence for a time until Blount broke in upon Gantry's tapping of the
dance-music rhythm with: "If I can close up a few unfinished business
matters and get ready I may go with you, Dick. Would you mind?"
"Yes; I should mind so much that I'd willingly miss a train or so and
worry out a few more of the chilly Boston hours rather than lose the
chance of having you along."
"That is good of you, I'm sure. I should bore myself to death if I had
to travel alone."
Blount's rejoinder might have passed for a mere friendly commonplace if
it had not been for the rather curiously worded telegram. But it was a
goodly portion of Gantry's business in life to put two and two together,
and that phrase in the senator's message about a woman's apron-string
interested him. Moreover, it was subtly suggestive.
"Ever meet your father's--er--the present Mrs. Blount, Evan?" he asked.
"No." Blount may have been Western-born, but the chilling discouragement
he could crowd into the two-letter negation spoke eloquently of his
Eastern training.
Gantry was rebuffed but not disheartened.
"She is a mighty fine woman," he ventured.
"So I have been given to understand." This time Blount's reply was icy.
But now Gantry's eyes were twinkling and he pressed his advantage.
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