V
Itwas two days afterward that Julie saw Mr. Bixby again. She knew his name now. TheHart’s Run Newshad announced that Mr. Timothy Bixby, an expert printer and typesetter, had accepted the position left vacant by the departure of Hobson Jones, who had left for Camp Lee to answer his call to the colors. TheNewsadded further, “We are glad to welcome Mr. and Mrs. Bixby to our midst.”
So that woman was his wife after all.
Their next meeting occurred when Mr. Bixby made his way to Julie’s little shop, sent by his wife to match some pink yarn for a sweater she was knitting. It was just like her, Julie thought, to be knitting a sweater for herself when all the rest of the women were at work on khaki wool for the soldiers. And like her, too, to send her husband, because she was ashamed to ask for it herself. Julie had time to think of these things because she was busy at the hat counter with a customer, and so had to let Maida Watkins, whosometimes helped her out in the shop, wait on Mr. Bixby.
“Pinkwool?” Maida demanded sharply, her cold young eyes piercing him, and her teeth snapping together on her chewing-gum. Maida had been expressing superiority, leisure, and indifference, as she stood behind the counter, ruminating slowly upon her gum, the while she patted her blond hair from time to time, or examined her polished nails; but when Mr. Bixby entered, and holding out the sample made his timid request, she shot “Pinkwool” at him, and clenched her teeth so tight on her gum that the muscles stood out on either side of her jaws. The color swept up uncomfortably to his eyes, making his face look blurred and helpless.
“Yes, marm, if you please, marm: to match this sample if you got it,” he stammered.
“No, we ain’t got it,” Maida returned, not even deigning to glance at the wisp of yarn he proffered. “It’s only pro-Germans would keep pink wool these days,” she informed him. After which she returned to her haughty mastication, staring away out of the window over his head.
It was here that Julie abruptly laid down thehat she had been displaying and swept forward. She was animated by the same rage that had assailed her before. As she passed Maida she glared at her. “Show Miss Jenkins that sport hat,” she commanded; and Maida with a startled and indignant toss of her blond puffs melted away to the obscurity of the hat counter.
Julie reached the open door just as Mr. Bixby was starting out of it.
“I’m mighty sorry I haven’t got what you want, Mr. Bixby,” she said. “I hope you’ll call again.”
At her words he turned, and there was a sudden leap of surprise, of recognition, and of release in his eyes. For an instant they stood and looked at one another, the storm-tossed personalities of each finding a harbor and refuge in the being of the other. He spoke first. “I—I didn’t know,” he stumbled. “Is this your shop?”
She nodded. “Yes, I live here.”
But now she knew that Maida was turning to ask her something about the hat she held, and she hastily snatched up the momentarily dropped mantle of conventionality.
“I’m mighty sorry we haven’t any pink wool,Mr. Bixby,” she repeated, although she was aware that Maida was regarding her with outraged contempt.
He replied with a sudden surprising twist of whimsicality, an unexpected twinkle in his blue eyes.
“Oh, well,” he appealed, “ain’t it just like me to ask for pink wool a war year? Ain’t it just the ornary kind of thing I would do?”
He spoke as though she knew him quite well, and would understand perfectly all the small disasters to which he was prone.
“Oh, well,” she said, still offering consolation, “Of course, a man couldn’t be expected to know how hard it is to get any kind of wool these days. Why, the Red Cross Committee has even sent over to Winter’s Gap to see if they can’t get some homespun. Winter’s Gap is in the back part of the county away from the railroad, where some of the old folks still spin,” she explained.
“Is that so?” he said with interest. People were not usually interested in Julie’s small remarks. “Well, I reckon I must be going,” he added, conscious now of Maida’s severe eyes upon them. He made an uncertain gesturetoward his hat and turned away. As he raised his arm, Julie caught sight of a rip in his sleeve.
“I don’t see why in the name of goodness that woman can’t keep him mended up!” her thoughts ejaculated angrily.