Chapter 26

Nothing could be more commonplace and conventional. Any one might have said it. But Barney Snaith had a way of saying things that gave them poignancy. When he said good-evening you felt that it _was_ a good evening and that it was partly his doing that it was. Also, you felt that some of the credit was yours. Valancy felt all this vaguely, but she couldn’t imagine why she was trembling from head to foot—it _must_ be her heart. If only he didn’t notice it! “I’m going over to the Port,” Barney was saying. “Can I acqu…