The Daughter of a Magnate
Page 44"My hat's blowin' off. There ain't any answer and the charges is paid."
"Will you wait?" exclaimed Gertrude, impatiently. The very handwriting
on the note annoyed her. While unfamiliar, her instinct connected it
with one person from whom she was determined to receive no
communication. She hesitated as she looked at her carefully written
name. She wanted to return the communication unopened; but how could
she be sure who had sent it? With the impatience of uncertainty she
ripped open the envelope.
The note was neither addressed nor signed.
"I have no right to keep this after you leave; perhaps I had no right
to keep it at all. But in returning it to you I surely may thank you
for the impulse that made you throw it over me the morning I lay asleep
behind the Spider dike."
She tore the package partly open--it was her Newmarket coat. Bundling
it up again she walked hastily to her compartment. For some moments
she remained within; when she came out the messenger boy, his hat now
paper she had laid down. Gertrude suppressed her astonishment; she
felt somehow overawed by the unconventionalities of the West.
"Boy, what are you doing here?"
"You said, wait," answered the boy, taking off his hat and rising.
"Oh, yes. Very well; no matter."
"Ma'am?"
"No matter."
"Does that mean for me to wait?"
"It means you may go."
He started reluctantly. "Gee," he exclaimed, under his breath, looking
around, "this is swell in here, ain't it?"
"See here, what is your name?"
"Solomon Battershawl, but most folks call me Gloomy."
"Gloomy! Where did you get that name?"
"Mr. Glover."
"I can't tell. He gave me a dollar and told me I wasn't to answer any
questions."
"Oh, did he? What else did he tell you?"
"He said for me to take my hat off when I spoke to you, but my hat
blowed off when you spoke to me."
"Unfortunate! Well, you are a handsome fellow, Gloomy. What do you
do?"
"I'm a railroad man."
"Are you? How fine. So you won't tell who sent you."
"No, ma'am."
"What else did the gentleman say?"
"He said if anybody offered me anything I wasn't to take anything."
"Did he, indeed, Gloomy?"
"Yes'm."
She turned to the table from where she was sitting and took up a big
"Yes'm."
"How about candy?"
Solomon shifted.
"He didn't mention candy?"
"No'm."
"Do you ever eat candy?"
"Yes'm."
"This is a box that came from Pittsburg only this morning for me. Take
some chocolates. Don't be afraid; take several. What is your last
name?"
"Battershawl."
"Gloomy Battershawl; how pretty. Battershawl is so euphonious."