Good-evening, sir."
Bodine bowed stiffly, and departed with many conflicting emotions surging
in his breast, none of them agreeable. He scarcely knew whether he had
acted wisely or not. Indeed, the impression grew upon him that he had been
worsted in the encounter, that George, in making him his messenger to
Ella, had acted with singular astuteness. This was true, but the young
man's action was not the result of the Yankee shrewdness with which the
veteran was disposed to credit him. A simple, straightforward course is
usually the wisest one, and George instinctively knew that Ella would
appreciate such openness on his part. He was left in a very anxious and
perturbed condition, it is true, but in his heart he again thanked Mrs.
Willoughby for putting him so sacredly on his guard against his hasty
temper.
Absorbed in thought, he sat till the gloom of night gathered in the
office; then the shuffling feet of the impatient janitor aroused him.
Solacing the old man with a dollar, he went out hastily, and walked a mile
or two to work off his nervous excitement, then sought a restaurant,
muttering, "I haven't reached the point of losing my appetite yet."
By the time Bodine reached home he was much calmer, and disposed to take a
much more hopeful view of the affair.
He again concluded that after all it was best that he should be the one to
inform Ella, and thus keep the matter entirely within his own hands.
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