She would be tall
and slender and shapely. His mind's eye traveled backward. Her hair
would be brown--But, even as he constructed her to please his eager
imagination, he quailed before the spectre of doubt: was the heart of
the girl of fifteen unchanged in the woman of twenty?
Ruby was glibly telling him of the young men who paid court to the
granddaughter of old Mr. Portman. Both she and Joey found rich
enjoyment in the fact that these sprigs of gentility knew nothing of
the circus-riding epoch in Christine's life; they wondered what the
effect would be when the truth came out. Joey ventured the opinion
that "the devil would be to pay," and Ruby added the prophecy that
"they would drop her like a hot poker." Strange to say, David found
considerable satisfaction in these dolorous predictions.
He caught the ferry soon after luncheon, and was in the station on the
other side of the river long before the train was due.
Buying a newspaper, he took a seat in a far corner of the concourse.
He read but little and that without understanding. His mind was quite
fully occupied in peering over the top of the sheet in the direction
of the sheds.
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