startling feeling held him frozen. She too seemed stirred and startled; she trembled so that he could see it, and her eyes filled with unexpected tears. She stared an instant at him in this way, then turned and almost ran away from him across the grass.
When she had got a block away, he quickened suddenly into movement, and ran after her. He saw her go into his father's house, and stood a long while looking at the great luxurious dwelling, with its high iron fence to keep out intruders. She had talked, he was recalling now, for quite half an hour with him; she had shown interest in him—no matter what the cause—and the recollection warmed him.
While he watched, a woman in striped kitchen dress came out at a rear door and threw away some refuse, and the sight reminded him of his dollar. As he went slowly back downtown, he was not consciously considering what her conversation with him must mean. To an older person, that she had connected the name Lampert only with the barn boss would have been evidence that she did not know about his mother. It was plain
