“So soon!” exclaimed Beatrice, and wondered why she felt so sorry.
“We have been here for several days. My sister will expect us. Now, my dear, I want you to tell me anything you wish. Rest assured I will advise you to the utmost of my wisdom.”
Bonny looked up and saw Mr. Dolloway’s eyes fixed curiously upon her. There was not a particle of sympathy in his face and it was evident that girls were not much more to his taste than boys. She felt that she could not say a word before him, and she did not know how to place him, whether as friend or servant of her host.
Perhaps Mr. Brook saw this hesitation and rightly interpreted it; for he rose almost at once and said: “I would like to go down to old Trinity before I return home. I’ll leave you, Dolloway, and our young friend Robert to order the dinner, and Miss Beckwith and I will walk down to the church,—that is, if she will favor me with her company. By the time we come back, dinner will be ready to serve, and I shall be able to satisfy Joanna’s questions about her old place of worship. Does that plan suit everybody?”
Bonny sprang up instantly. “I think you have a gift for plans which please everybody, dear sir! I was never in Trinity Church but once, though I was born and have always lived in New York. I should like to go very much.”
“Then let us be off. Will the arrangement suit Robert? If not—”
“I’d rather stay here, thank you, sir,” said the boy; “and did you mean ’at I could have anything I wanted to eat?”
“Bob!”
“Certainly. Order anything you wish, that is in market. I remember how hungry I used to get when I was a school-boy. I’m hungry still; so don’t forget to look out for me, too. Good-by for a little while;” and nodding gayly to the lad, Mr. Brook led the way into the street and down it to the church.
“I like this old place. I can remember it for so long. To step into it out of the rush of Broadway is almost like being recreated,” said Mr. Brook, reverently, as they entered and passed slowly up the broad aisle.