Harkless seized his hand and shook it fervently, and then laughed
heartily, as he accepted the invitation.
At the gate, Miss Sherwood extended her hand to him and said politely, and
with some flavor of mockery: "Good-night, Mr. Harkless. I do not leave
to-morrow. I am very glad to have met you."
"We are going to keep her all summer if we can," said Minnie, weaving her
arm about her friend's waist. "You'll come in the morning?"
"Good-night, Miss Sherwood," he returned, hilariously. "It has been such a
pleasure to meet you. Thank you so much for saving my life. It was very
good of you indeed. Yes, in the morning. Good-night--good-night." He shook
hands with them all again, including Mr. Todd, who was going with him.
He laughed most of the way home, and Mr. Todd walked at his side in
amazement. The Herald Building was a decrepit frame structure on Main
Street; it had once been a small warehouse and was now sadly in need of
paint. Closely adjoining it, in a large, blank-looking yard, stood a low
brick cottage, over which the second story of the warehouse leaned in an
effect of tipsy affection that had reminded Harkless, when he first saw
it, of an old Sunday-school book wood-cut of an inebriated parent under
convoy of a devoted child. The title to these two buildings and the blank
yard had been included in the purchase of the "Herald"; and the cottage
was Harkless's home.
There was a light burning upstairs in the "Herald" office. From the street
a broad, tumble-down stairway ran up on the outside of the building to the
second floor, and at the stairway railing John turned and shook his
companion warmly by the hand.
"Good-night, William," he said. "It was plucky of you to join in that
muss, to-night. I shan't forget it."
"I jest happened to come along," replied the other, drowsily; then, with a
portentous yawn, he asked: "Ain't ye goin' to bed?"
"No; Parker wouldn't allow it."
"Well," observed William, with another yawn, which bade fair to expose the
veritable soul of him, "I d'know how ye stand it. It's closte on eleven
o'clock. Good-night."
John went up the steps, singing aloud:
"For to-night we'll merry, merry be,
For to-night we'll merry, merry be,"
and stopped on the sagging platform at the top of the stairs and gave the
moon good-night with a wave of the hand and friendly laughter. At that it
suddenly struck him that he was twenty-nine years of age; that he had
laughed a great deal that evening; that he had laughed and laughed over
things not in the least humorous, like an excited schoolboy making his
first formal call; that he had shaken hands with Miss Briscoe when he left
her, as if he should never see her again; that he had taken Miss
Sherwood's hand twice in one very temporary parting; that he had shaken
the judge's hand five times, and William's four!