“I was,” the lad replied a bit shamefacedly. Then bravely, “I ran away to see you!”
“Why, Harold!”
“I don’t care!” was the dogged response. “I had to!”
“I shouldn’t think they’d have let you come in the night,” said Polly, leading him into the library.
The introduction relieved the lad of the necessity of an answer; but Polly innocently plied her questions.
“Why didn’t Julian come, too? Was it a half-holiday?”
For an instant Harold looked disconcerted. Then he replied boldly:—
“Jule doesn’t know! I tell you, I ran away!”
Polly’s eyes widened in astonishment. Mrs. Dudley smiled understandingly.
“I gave the conductor my watch for security,” the boy went on. “I told him how ’twas, and he let me ride,—I guess out of his own pocket. He was a good one! You see, I spent all my money in a jiffy for the first part of the way and something to eat. I didn’t s’pose tickets cost so much.”