I could see, too,
that he belittled the real things, and magnified the unimportant.
According to his narrative, the unimportant things were that he was
a civil engineer, that he had been in Peru building a railroad for
an English; syndicate, and that the railroad was now practically
completed; he seemed, however, to attach great importance to the
cable that had called him to London to appear before a board of
directors, for that had been the indirect means of his taking
passage on the same ship with me. Then there was the wonderful fact
that he was to see us in California. He had been in harness now for
four years, he said, and he felt as if he'd earned a vacation. At
all events, he meant to take one.
As neither he nor Dad would hear of my leaving them to their cigars,
I sat by and listened, and loved it all, every minute of it. I
didn't know, then (I don't know to this day) whether I liked Mr.
Porter best for being so boyish, or so manly. But manly men who
retain all the enthusiasms of youth have a certain charm one likes
instinctively, I think.
There is no doubt that Mr. Porter quite captivated Dad. "You make me
feel like a boy," he said, after listening to a delightfully
whimsical account of conditions in Peru.
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