“Aye,” said he, “I’ve no doubt you will.”
“But I’m not beginning very well,” she said, “being late like this.”
“And no lunch!” said he. “I’d forgotten that. It’s—let’s see—it’s nearly three o’clock.”
“I don’t care,” she said stoutly.
He did, though. He was greatly worried.
“Well,” he said, after much thought, “I’ve a box of sweets here. Very poor things they are for the teeth and the digestion, but I dare say they’re better than nothing.”
He set to work to unwrap his neat package. As he did so, the box of blocks fell out upside down, and the contents scattered over the deck.
“Oh!” said she. “Were they for your little boy?[Pg 78]”
He did not answer until he had picked all the blocks up. Then he straightened himself, with a slight frown.
“I’m a bachelor,” he said. “They were for the child of an old friend.” And he added resolutely: “A very respectable, middle-aged body.”