Once within, it took Mrs. Forbes a minute or two to get her breath, but she soon noticed that her companion's eyes were fixed upon a man seated a little way from them across the car. A smile kept coming to the child's lips, and at last the gentleman himself recognized that he was an object of interest. He looked at the strange little girl kindly. Her hand went unconsciously to the small gold pin she wore. The man smiled and touched one of similar pattern which was fastening his tie. In a minute more his street was reached, and as he passed Jewel on his way out of the car, he stooped and gave her ready hand a little pressure.
She colored with pleasure, and Mrs. Forbes swelled with curiosity and disapproval. She knew the man by sight as a highly respectable citizen. What was this wild Western child doing now? The car made too much noise to permit of investigation, so she waited until they had left it and entered the park gates.
“Julia,” she said then, “where did you ever see that gentleman before?”
“I never did,” replied the child.
“What do you mean by such bold actions, then? What will he think of you?”
“He'll think it's all right,” returned Jewel. “We have the same—the same friends.”
The housekeeper looked at her. It was beneath her dignity to ask further questions at present, but some time she meant to renew the subject.
“It's very wrong for a little girl to take any notice of strangers,” she said.
“Yes'm,” replied Jewel, “but he was—different.”
Mrs. Forbes maintained silence henceforth until they reached home. “You may hang your hat and jacket in the closet under the stairs whenever you don't wish to go to your room,” she said when she parted with her companion at the piazza, “but don't wander away anywhere before lunch.”