The class first mentioned
comprised a small coterie, among whom Carroll soon found two or
three congenials--Edith Fuller, wife of the young cashier in the
bank; Valerie Cathcart, whose husband had been killed in the Civil
War; Clara Taylor, wife of the leading young lawyer of the village;
and, strangely enough, Mina Heinzman, the sixteen-year-old daughter
of old Heinzman, the lumberman. Nothing was more indicative of the
absolute divorce of business and social life than the unbroken
evenness of Carroll's friendship for the younger girl. Though later
the old German and Orde locked in serious struggle on the river,
they continued to meet socially quite as usual; and the daughter of
one and the wife of the other never suspected anything out of the
ordinary. This impersonality of struggle has always been
characteristic of the pioneer business man's good-nature.
Newmark received the news of his partner's sudden marriage without
evincing any surprise, but with a sardonic gleam in one corner of
his eye. He called promptly, conversed politely for a half hour,
and then took his leave.
"How do you like him?" asked Orde, when he had gone.
"He looks like a very shrewd man," replied Carroll, picking her
words for fear of saying the wrong thing.
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