CHAPTER NINETEEN
Rainbow’s post office was always crowded when the three o’clock mail was distributed; it was a daily clearing house of gossip, a club with a general membership, an institution of importance in the political and financial and social life of the town. On the afternoon following Lydia Canfield’s party, the session was devoted almost exclusively to Angus Burke. He had become a personage. The town set a new value on him… a value not solid but tinseled. Temporarily his act of the night before had gilded him, had caused other matters to be lost sight of which, presently, would be remembered again. Every phase of his rescue of Myrtle Cuyler was discussed and its possibilities followed into the remote future. Rainbow loved to speculate upon the future.
Lydia Canfield came through the door and bent to open her post box as Mrs. Bowen, wife of Chet, was saying:
“Wouldn’t it be funny if it turned out to be a romance, like in books? Angus Burke’s old
212
