Meanwhile Miss Constance and Captain Melton walked together with Noel between them.
"I'm grateful to you, Harry, for rescuing my cherub. He comes to cheer me up when I'm in the blues. And I'm grateful to him for producing you. I was getting very dull in the country here. Will you take me out fishing with you to-morrow?"
"How many fish would I get if I did?" asked Captain Melton with a smile.
"You could come and fiss with Chris and me," put in Noel. "We go to the bridge across the stream at the back of our house, and we catch sticky bats."
"Thank you, Cherub, but two's company and three is none."
"P'r'aps," Noel said, turning to the Captain—"p'r'aps, God's man, you'd like to come and see my Chris'mas tree?"
"My dear fellow," said the Captain, "I don't like that nickname you've given me. Choose another!"
"Oh," said Miss Constance, laughing, "you are number two! Remember—"
Then her face softened and she spoke gravely and in almost a whisper, "You were an answer to prayer—"
"Yes," said Noel cheerfully, "that's just what he was. God sent him because we wanted to be let out."