His rustic mind worked slowly; it was not wholly content even with a
result in its own favour, where the process had been so rapid; he
was scarcely able to fix the point at which the talk ceased to be a
warning against beats and became his opportunity for speculation. He
did not feel quite right at having taken the fellow's half-dollar;
and yet a bargain was a bargain. Nevertheless, if the fellow wanted
to rue it, Lemuel would give him fifteen minutes to come back and
get his money; and he sat for that space of time where the others
had left him. He was not going to be mean; and he might have waited
a little longer if it had not been for the behaviour of two girls
who came up and sat down on the same bench with him. They could not
have been above fifteen or sixteen years old, and Lemuel thought
they were very pretty, but they talked so, and laughed so loud, and
scuffled with each other for the paper of chocolate which one of
them took out of her pocket, that Lemuel, after first being abashed
by the fact that they were city girls, became disgusted with them.
He was a stickler for propriety of behaviour among girls; his mother
had taught him to despise anything like carrying-on among them, and
at twenty he was as severely virginal in his morality as if he had
been twelve.
People looked back at these tomboys when they had got by; and some
shabby young fellows exchanged saucy speeches with them.
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