He wished to say something, and desired
that it should not be clerical in tone. He would fain have spoken, not
as a deacon, but as a man of the world.
"Are you going to New York?" he asked.
"I shall not have the pleasure of your company so far," she returned
with a smile.
"No," he responded naively. "I am going only to Springfield."
"Ah," she said, smiling again; and too late he realized that she had
meant that she was not going through.
He was the more vexed with himself because he was sure that his
confusion was so plain that she could not but see it, and that it was
with a kind intention of relieving his embarrassment that she spoke
again.
"I am going to visit my grandmother in Brookfield."
He replied by some sort of an unintelligible murmur, and was doubly
angry with himself for being so shy and awkward. He glanced furtively
at the trim young man opposite, and was relieved to find that that
individual was reading and giving no heed. He wondered why he should be
so completely thrown out of his usual self-possession by this girl, so
that when he talked to her, and was most anxious to appear at his best,
he was most surely at his worst.
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