THE TRIP TO GALENA
783
civilized formation, with lines of abandoned positions and others of
entrenched certainties, a humane face.
"I think I must doubt that," he said.
Weyl heavily shrugged. "You thinking of the scrap I put up for
Charney?" he said. "That's in another department and has nothing
to do with it. I'm not saying that I don't draw the line somewhere.
I only ran with the
voyous,
homosexuals, kidnapers, and crooks. I
never went the whole distance with them. I couldn't. Either my nature
wasn't big enough or my rearing got in the way. Galena was enough
like home so that I got a chance to study the rearing. Till, on Sunday
morning, I couldn't stand any more of it and knew I would never
be able to get through the day. The girls took me to see General
Grant's old home. Well, a great military hero who has bivouacked in
all
kinds of places is easy to please with a few comforts at the end,
in his wife's parlor. Then,
",~. '::1
we came back, the
Tribune
had
arrived from Chicago and
t;.
~ .lther
was reading it in
his
parlor.
The girls tried to get the (-. : ed comics away from him and he
wouldn't give them up.
An '.~ ; ~
of a sudden I broke out and said I
had to go back to Chicat;o .
I. t
away.
I.
had an appointment in the
evening and it was about
~
..'
~;nportant
piece of business, something
that couldn't wait. You
1.. . " ,
I dislike that kind of impulsiveness
myself; I didn't like mY5f '
i
:.
doing it, but there was no help when
it came aboard me. '\\
bl
"c rt of business do you do on Sunday
evening?' Neff senior said. The girls started to smile. For a couple
of normal, healthy small-town
girls
with good complexions, they
wouldn't have been wisely brought up if they didn't know, by descrip–
tion, anyhow, what sort of business a man like me had in the city on
a Sunday. These fresh girls on both sides of the room, smelling of
lovely soap, with garden dresses like cucumber and squash, knitting
up their brows to each other on the old man's hint of my sporting
vices-hey, innocence! So I started to grin, too, as
if
to admit what
a mistake it was to put me up for a respectable marriage. The whole
thing was a disgrace for Fanny. Mrs. Neff tried to get me to stay
for dinner; the roast was almost ready, crown roast of pork, and
Herbert had already gone out for the ice cream. She said I could
take the three o'clock train. But I was bound for the earlier one at
twelve-thirty, and the calamity kept growing. I was afraid it would
