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though she was both, and to a far greater degree than he. He was a
tall man and the muscles of his youth had not yet been overlaid by
flesh, but, at thirty-three, had begun to sag a little as though they
were preparing themselves for a permanent relaxation. His thick,
yellow hair looked like a palm thatch and now, as he bent over and it
fell forward from his skull, I felt that I could lift up a flap of it and
clip it at a single root like the midrib of a leaf. His face was broad
and red and its hollows were scooped out cleanly so that, although it
was full, the shape of the skeleton was clearly visible. His chin was
cleft and his lips, whose usual attitude was one of curving downward,
were quiet and contemplative and seemed not to belong to the chilled
blue eyes which were those of a decisive man. Today, because of the
heat, he was dressed like a boy and when he stood up to get some–
thing from the work-table which required him to turn in my direc–
tion, I saw to my embarrassment that his white, short-sleeved shirt
was torn at the shoulder, revealing a segment of skin, browned by
the sun on the days he had gone bathing. His hair seemed fairer than
usual and at the temples it was almost white.
Miss Pride, who had been leaning over his bent back, withdrew
as he stood up, and she said, "I expect a good pair of shoes, Mr.
Marburg. Your price is steep, but I have every confidence in Ger–
man workmanship."
He did not rise to her compliment but gave only the smile which
politeness demanded. I fairly danced with impatience in .the sand at
his unresponsive face and at the impudence which had made him
charge her a high price when he should, I thought, have done the
work free and presented her as a gift the finest pair of shoes he could
make. Ah, if she had come to call on
me,
not my father, how I
would have entertained her! I would have made her a pot of tea and
run to the village for a lemon and half a dozen jellied doughnuts.
And I would have listened carefully to every word she said and nod–
ded my head in constant agreement as she talked.
Although she saw that he was disinclined to talk (he could so
easily, with the opening she had given
him,
explain that he had not
always been a poor, shabby man, but that in Germany, he had been
of a well-to-do family) , she persevered. "You learned your trade in
Germany, did you not?"
"Oh, yes!" In his voice, there was an impulsive note which, com–
bined with my sudden apprehension of a half-empty whiskey bottle
on the shelf over the door, alarmed me, and I was afraid that he
might begin to calendar, not the events of his past life, but its errors.
For when he had been drinking, he became neither rebellious nor
