When Yan got back to the Raftens' he found the dinner table set for one, though it was now three in the afternoon.
"Come and get your dinner," said Mrs. Raften in her quiet motherly way. "I'll put on the steak. It will be ready in five minutes."
"But I've had my dinner with Granny de Neuville."
"Yes, I know!"
"Did she stir yer tea with one front claw an' put jam on yer bread with the other?" asked Raften, rather coarsely.
"Did she b'ile her pet Blackbird fur yer soup?" said Sam.
Yan turned very red. Evidently all had a good idea of what he had experienced, but it jarred on him to hear their mockery of the good old soul.
He replied warmly, "She was just as kind and nice as she could be."
"You had better have a steak now," said Mrs. Raften, in solicitous doubt.
How tempting was the thought of that juicy brown steak! How his empty stomach did crave it! But the continued mockery had stirred him. He would stand up for the warm-hearted old woman who had ungrudgingly given him the best she had—had given her all—to make a hearty welcome for a stranger. [217] They should never know how gladly he would have eaten now, and in loyalty to his recent hostess he added the first lie of his life: