But there was no timidity in the kiss he returned her as he set her upon the ground, and with all his usual cheerfulness, demanded:
“Well, little traveler, how do you propose to get home again?”
“I don’t know!” The tone was a happy one and seemed to mean: “And I don’t care! You are to find the way for me!”
“You don’t, eh? But I’m thinking that good mother of yours will be hungry for a sight of your face, and it’s time we remembered her. Mothers are queer bodies. They like to have their youngsters around them, be they never so bothersome. Yet, since she’s waited so long, I think it will do no harm for her to wait a while longer. I’d like to have you pay me a little visit, as well as Bonny-Gay, and I’ll invite you to my house to take supper with a lonely old fellow who’ll entertain you as well as he can.”
It was hard to refuse, she would so much have liked to see the home of her friend, of the friend of all the children whom she knew. But the vision of her mother, waiting and anxious, was too much for her loyal heart, so she declined as prettily as she knew how, only requesting:
“Now, please, you are to tell me the quickest way home to Dingy street and I’ll go. You must know it, for you’ve been there so often.”
“Yes, I know it, and I’ll take you at once. I’ll do more. I’ll invite myself to supper with you after I get there, since you can’t stop with me.”
“Very well,” said Mary Jane, though not with much enthusiasm. She was afraid he would think her mother’s supper a poor one. However, he was quite welcome to what they had, and she added more cordially: “I know mother’d think it an honor, only I’d have to stop at the baker’s on the way.”
She didn’t quite understand why both gentlemen laughed so heartily. They now seemed in a mood, each one of them, to laugh at any and everything which happened, and Bonny-Gay’s father teased the other a little about his great appetite, which required the contents of a bake-shop to satisfy. Then he added, with a manner that admitted of no denial:
“But you’ll have to defer your visit, neighbor, till another time. I claim the privilege of conveying this young lady to her destination, and my man has already summoned a cab. Here it comes, now; for I’d rather trust a city cabby to find out odd places than my own coachman.”