“Told you?” laughed Mabel.
“To be sure,” said Jimmy quietly. “Gabriel and I have a language of our own, and when I told him Miss Shirley was coming back he just told me how anxious he had been to see you ever since you went away.”
“Well, I’m glad he missed me,” said Shirley. “Come, Mabel, I want to have a long talk with Dad.”
They left Jimmy and sought Mr. Willing. They found him a few minutes later, seated on the big front porch, deep in conversation with a stranger. Both girls felt sure that he was the man who tried to bribe Jimmy only a short time before.
They would have gone into the house but Mr. Willing called them.
“I want you to know my daughter, Mr. Jones,” he said to his visitor; “and also Miss Mabel Ashton, the daughter of my old friend, Colonel Ashton, whom you know.”
The man called Mr. Jones arose, and extended his hand, but the girls, pretending not to see it, acknowledged the introductions with the briefest of nods.
Jones noticed the unmistakable hostility in their manner, and withdrew his hand quickly. Mr. Willing also noticed it, and scowled slightly. The girls said nothing, and a moment later Mr. Willing said: “You girls run along now.”
Shirley and Mabel accepted their dismissal with gladness, and went into the house. Mr. Willing, having disposed of his visitor half an hour later, followed them. He turned to Shirley sharply.
“In the future,” he said, “you will treat your father’s friends with more respect than you did Mr. Jones.”