The other thing that interfered was the tiny boy she found sitting beside the Other Girl when she got on the train. He was almost too small to interfere with anything! Such a bit of a creature, in trousers almost too short to deserve the name! And beside him was tilted a tiny crutch that instantly suggested Tiny Tim to Dickens-loving Glory. Then she remembered that the Other Girl had spoken of a “Tiny Tim” the day before. So the Other Girl must have read Dickens, too.
“Here's a good seat,” Judy said, dropping into the one just ahead of the two shabby figures.
Glory nodded cordially as she passed them, but how could she do any more? She could not introduce Judy when she didn't know the Other Girl's name herself! And, besides—well, Judy was not the—the kind to introduce to her. Instinctively Glory recognized that.
In between Judy's gay chatter, bits of child-talk crept to Glory's ears from behind, with now and then a quiet word from the Other Girl. She found herself listening to that with distinctly more interest than to Judy.
“No let's play it, Di,” the child-voice piped eagerly, and there was a little clatter of the tiny crutch as it was tucked away out of sight under the seat.
“Can't see it now, can you?”
“Not a splinter of it, Timmie.”
“I guess not! An' you wouldn't ever s'pose anybody was lame, would you? Not me!”
“You! The idea, Timmie!”
The child-voice broke into delighted laughter.