{"product_id":"2940149191888","title":"The Helpers (Illustrated)","description":"The curtain had gone down on the first act of the opera, and Jeffard found his hat and rose to go out. His place was the fourth from the aisle, and after an ineffectual attempt to make a passageway for him without rising, the two young women and the elderly man stood up and folded their opera chairs. Being driven to think pointedly of something else, Jeffard neglected to acknowledge the courtesy; and the two young women balanced the account by discussing him after he had passed out of hearing.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"I think he might at least have said 'Thank you,'\" protested the one in the black-plumed picture-hat, preening herself after the manner of ruffled birds and disturbed womankind. \"I'm in love with your mountains, and your climate, and your end-of-the-century impetus, but I can't say that I particularly admire Denver manners.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe clear-eyed young woman in the modest toque laughed joyously.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Go on, Myra dear; don't mind me. It's so refreshing to hear an out-of-church opinion on one's[2] self. I know our manners are perfectly primitive, but what can you expect when every train from the East brings us a new lot of people to civilize? When you are tempted to groan over our shortcomings it'll comfort you wonderfully if you will just stop long enough to remember that a good many of us are the newest of new tenderfoots!\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Tenderfoots! What an expression!\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"It's good English, though we did use to say 'tenderfeet' before the 'Century Dictionary' set us right. And it calls the turn, as poppa would say.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShe of the far-reaching plumes bent her eyebrows in severe deprecation.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Connie, your slang is simply vicious. Will you be good enough to tell me what 'calls the turn' means?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Ask poppa.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAppealed to by the censorious one, the elderly man stopped twiddling the bit of gold quartz on his watch-guard long enough to explain. He did it with a little hesitancy, picking his way among the words as one might handle broken glass, or the edged tools of an unfamiliar trade. He was a plain man, and he stood in considerable awe of the picture-hat and its wearer. When he had finished, the toque made honorable amends.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"I beg your pardon, Myra. Really, I didn't know it had anything to do with gambling. But to go back to our manners: I'll give you the ponies and the phaeton if I don't convince you that the absent-minded gentleman on our left here is[3] the tenderest of tenderfoots—most probably from Philadelphia, too,\" she added, in mischievous afterthought.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"You wouldn't dare!\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"You think not? Just wait and you'll see. Oh, cousin mine, you've a lot to learn about your kind, yet. If you stay out here six months or a year, you will begin to think your philosophy hasn't been half dreamful enough.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"How absurd you are, Constance. If I didn't know you to be\"—\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Wait a minute; let me start you off right: good, and sensible, and modest, and unassuming, and dutiful, and brimful of fads\"—she checked the attributes off on her fingers. \"You see I have them all by heart.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe little cloud of dust puffing from beneath the drop-curtain began to subside, and the thumping and rumbling on the stage died away what time the musicians were clambering back to their places in the orchestra. Miss Van Vetter swept the aisles and the standing-room with her opera-glass.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"You will not have a chance to prove it, Connie. He isn't coming back.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Don't you believe it. I am quite sure he is a gentleman who always gets the worth of his money.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"What makes you say that?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Oh, I don't know; intuition, I suppose. That's what they call it in a woman, though I think it would be called good judgment in a man.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTaking him at his worst, Miss Elliott's terse[4] characterization of Henry Jeffard was not altogether inaccurate, though, in the present instance, he would not have gone back to the theatre if he had known what else to do with himself. Indeed, he was minded not to go back, but a turn in the open air made him think better of it, and he strolled in as the curtain was rising. Whereupon the elderly man and the two young women had to stand again while he edged past them to his chair.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis time he remembered, and said something about being sorry to trouble them. Miss Elliott's chair was next to his, and she smiled and nodded reassuringly. Jeffard was moody and disheartened, and the nod and the smile went near to the better part of him. He kept his seat during the next intermission, and ventured a civil commonplace about the opera. The young woman replied in kind, and the wheel thus set in motion soon rolled away from the beaten track of trivialities into a path leading straight to the fulfillment of Miss Elliott's promise to her cousin.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Then you haven't been long in Denver,\" she hazarded on the strength of a remark which betrayed his unfamiliarity with Colorado.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Lost Leaf Publications","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47176775958768,"sku":"2940149191888","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940149191888_p0.jpg?v=1763713261","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940149191888","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}