FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89  
90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   >>   >|  
glance at his companion. "And as we're passing, you might just introduce me to your mother; see?" "She won't expect it, Lorne." "That's all right, my son. She won't refuse to meet a friend of yours." He led the way as he spoke to the point of vantage occupied by Mrs Crow, followed, with plain reluctance, by her son. She was a frail-looking old woman, with a knitted shawl pinned tightly across her chest, and her bonnet, in the course of commercial activity, pushed so far back as to be almost falling off. "You might smarten yourself with that change, Elmore," she addressed him, ignoring his companion. "There's folks coming back for it. Two-dollar bill, wa'n't it? Fifty cents--seventy-five--dollar'n a half. That's a Yankee dime, an' you kin march straight back with it. They don't pass but for nine cents, as you're old enough to know. Keep twenty-five cents for your dinner--you'll get most for the money at the Barker House--an' bring me back another quarter. Better go an' get your victuals now--it's gone twelve--while they're hot." Elmore took his instructions without visible demur; and then, as Lorne had not seen fit to detach himself, performed the ceremony of introduction. As he performed it he drew one foot back and bowed himself, which seemed obscurely to facilitate it. The suspicion faded out of Mrs Crow's tired old sharp eyes under the formula, and she said she was pleased to make our friend's acquaintance. "Mr Murchison's changed some since the old days at the Collegiate," Elmore explained, "but he ain't any different under his coat. He's practisin' the law." "Lawyers," Mrs Crow observed, "are folks I like to keep away from." "Quite right, too," responded Lorne, unabashed. "And so you've got my friend here back on the farm, Mrs Crow?" "Well, yes, he's back on the farm, an' when he's wore out his Winnipeg clothes and his big ideas, we're lookin' to make him some use." Mrs Crow's intention, though barbed, was humorous, and her son grinned broadly. "There's more money in the law," he remarked "once you get a start. Here's Mr Murchison goin' to run the Ormiston case; his old man's down sick, an' I guess it depends on Lorne now whether Ormiston gets off or goes to penitentiary." Mrs Crow's face tied itself up into criticism as she looked our young man up and down. "Depends upon you, does it?" she commented. "Well, all I've got to say is it's a mighty young dependence. Coming on next week, ain't it?
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89  
90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Elmore

 
friend
 

performed

 

Ormiston

 

Murchison

 

dollar

 
companion
 
mighty
 

explained

 
Collegiate

practisin

 

Lawyers

 

observed

 

changed

 

dependence

 

facilitate

 

suspicion

 

depends

 
acquaintance
 

Coming


pleased

 

formula

 

remarked

 

lookin

 
criticism
 

intention

 
grinned
 

broadly

 

humorous

 
barbed

penitentiary

 

clothes

 

looked

 

commented

 

unabashed

 

responded

 
Winnipeg
 

Depends

 

obscurely

 

pushed


activity

 

commercial

 

tightly

 

bonnet

 
falling
 
coming
 

ignoring

 

addressed

 
smarten
 

change