A VISITOR FROM HOME
"She says you were great friends down South, so I've invited her to supper. She wants to see you."
"To supper!" he thought. Was she mocking him? Was she restraining her scorn of him only to make his humiliation the greater after a while? He looked at her, but there was no suspicion of malice in her face, and he took hope.
"Well, I'd like to see old Minty," he said. "It's been many a long day since I've seen her."
All that afternoon, after going to the barber-shop, Joe was driven by a tempest of conflicting emotions. If Minty Brown had not told his story, why not? Would she yet tell, and if she did, what would happen? He tortured himself by questioning if Hattie would cast him off. At the very thought his hand trembled, and the man in the chair asked him if he hadn't been drinking.
When he met Minty in the evening, however, the first glance at her reassured
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