I seem to need a good deal of
sleep." He coughed behind his hand, and lingered inside the
door. It was so unusual for Miss Georgie to make conversation
with him that Saunders was almost pitifully eager to be
agreeable.
"If it didn't sound cruel, this weather," said Miss Georgie
lightly, still looking at him--or, more particularly, at the
crumpled, soiled collar of his coarse blue shirt--"I'd advise you
to get out of Hartley once a day, if it was no more than to take
a walk. Though to be sure," she smiled, "the prospect is not
inviting, to say the least. Put it would be a change; I'd run up
and down the track, if I didn't have to stick here in this office
all day."
"I can't stand walking," Saunders whined. "It makes me cough."
To illustrate, he gave another little hack behind his hand. "I
went up to the stable yesterday with a book, and laid down in the
hay. And I went to sleep, and Pete thought I was lost, I guess."
He grinned, which was not pleasant, for he chewed tobacco and had
ugly, discolored teeth into the bargain.
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