“Why?”
“He said he knew how to get pleasure without,” Ruddy’s face puckered with genial impertinence, “without ’laybore’.”
The lady laughed. “I think I could tell you how he does it. You’ll never guess what the naughty man did to me. He brought me down here for one dear little day to our two selves and then,” she raised her shoulders ever so slightly, “he saw a pretty face and left me in the shelter to wait for him. I’ve waited; I’ve not had any lunch.”
“Had no lunch!” Teddy spoke in the tones of one to whom a missed meal spelled tragedy.
“You see, he carries my purse,” she explained.
The boys asked each other questions with their eyes, jingled the coins in their pockets and nodded.
“If you wouldn’t mind coming with us——”
She looked at them, this young girl, who was old enough to be their grandmother. “You’re very kind.” She smiled mysteriously. “Yes, I’ll let you treat me.”
They took her to the confectioner’s in a side street where they had had their midday meal. It was inexpensive. Seated at a marble-topped table, while trippers came in and out for buns, she looked strangely and exotically elegant.
She noticed that they weren’t eating. “Aren’t you having anything yourselves?”