Bonny sprang up at once. “Thank you, Mr. Brook. And if your sister does not see how to help us into a sensible way of living, still I shall always remember you gratefully; and I will try to be to my Roland what Miss Brook has been to you. I will, indeed. But I am glad to go back to Robert. He is rather uncertain in his behavior, though the dearest little fellow in the world!”
“Indeed?” laughed Mr. Brook, dryly; and with so much of mischief in his fine old face that again Beatrice was reminded of the picture her mother had seen in the chrysanthemums, and she beguiled the way back to the hotel by a description of the little scene when the basket had arrived.
“That was pretty, very pretty. Joanna must certainly know your mother; and I have a scheme in my mind that, meeting her approval, will bring many happy days to all of us, I trust.” The old man looked up cheerily, and caught Bonny’s wondering gaze fixed upon his face. “Ah, ha, my dear! You see that youth has no monopoly of ‘looking forward.’ A man may be a deal happier at eighty than he ever was at eighteen. I am.”
They reached the hotel none too soon. Dinner had been ready for some moments, and both Mr. Dolloway and Robert were in the condition of temper which hungry men, of any size, not possessing more than the usual amount of “grace” commonly exhibit.
“Bonny! I want to go home! Right away! That horrid old man has—sp-sp-spanked—me!”
CHAPTER VII.
DINING IN STATE.
“IMPOSSIBLE!” cried Beatrice, catching the angry boy in her arms, and casting a defiant glance toward the irate Mr. Dolloway.
“Well, when a young one don’t know any better than to sass his elders he’d ought to be spanked. So I done it. An’ I’ll do it again, if I ever have occasion to.”
“Dolloway!”
Beatrice was surprised to hear how stern Mr. Brook’s voice could become, and she was delighted to see the other old fellow wince visibly. The sternness had gone home to the servant’s guilty heart, as it should.