“Why—­er—­I’ve never thought about it.”

“If you was to think about it, you’d calc’late on payin’ about six dollars a week, wouldn’t you?” Bob swallowed hard.  Six dollars a week was a great deal of money to this young man, just embarking on the practice of his profession.  “Guess that would be about right,” he said.

“Got anybody in mind, Bob?  Thinkin’ of anybody specific for the place?”

Bob shook his head.

“Um!...  Nahum Pound’s daughter’s boardin’ with Grandma Penny, that’s now
Mis’ Spackles.  All-fired perty girl, Bob.  Don’t call to mind no pertier. 
Sairy’s her name....  G’-by, Bob.  G’-by.”

He walked to the door, but paused.  “About that six dollars, Bob—­I was figgerin’ on payin’ that out of my own pocket.”

Bob Allen was not accustomed to the oversight of employees—­least of all to an employee who was very satisfying to look at, who was winsomely young, whose mere presence distracted his thoughts from that rigorous concentration upon the logical principles of the law....  He did not know what to do with Sarah once he had hired her, and it required so much of his time and brain power to think up something for her to do that it is fortunate his practice was neither large nor arduous.  It is no mean tribute to the young man that he kept Sarah so busy with apparently necessary matters that she had no occasion to doubt the authenticity of her employment.

Bob faced a second difficulty, due to his inexperience, and that was that he was at a loss how to comport himself toward Sarah, as to how friendly he should be, and as to how much he should maintain a certain grave dignity and reserve in his dealings with her.  This was a matter which need not have troubled him, for Nature has a way of taking into her own keeping the bearing of young men toward young women when the two are thrown much into each other’s company.  Propinquity is a tremendous force in the life of humanity.  It has caused as many love affairs as the kicking of other men’s dogs has caused street fights—­which numbers into infinity.  Consequently, while Bob worried much and selected a number of widely differing attitudes—­a thing which caused Sarah some uneasiness and no little speculation as to what sort of disposition her employer possessed—­the solution lay not with him at all.  It took care of itself.

Scattergood noted the significance of symptoms.  He made a mental memorandum of the fact that Bob Allen was seldom to be seen among the post-office loafers; that Bob preferred his office to any other spot; that Bob had ordered a new suit from a city tailor; that Bob wore a constant air of anxiety and excitement, and—­most expressive symptom of all for a Coldriver young man—­he became interested in residence property, in lots, and in the cost of erecting dwellings....  Scattergood looked in vain for reciprocal symptoms to be shown by Sarah.  But Sarah was a woman.  What symptoms she exhibited were meaningless even to Scattergood.