“And why should you not tell me the truth?” she urged. “I think I have the right to know it.”
“Not at present,” he said coolly. “I am in honor bound to my client, you should remember. I may lose my—er—commission, if I am not careful.”
“I should be glad to know that the child is—that he is not an imbecile.”
She answered his amazed look with swift explanation.
“A woman who saw my advertisement wanted me to take charge of an imbecile child; that is why——”
“And you would have done it, Barbara? You were ready to commit yourself to such a future, just because I——”
He stopped short with a visible effort.
“No; the child is—— He is a very dear and lovable little fellow, I should say. And he needs—you. He is—quite alone in the world.”
“So,” she murmured, “is Jimmy. And when I am gone there will be no one——”
“You will not be obliged to leave your brother right away, you know,” he suggested. “And—possibly not at all.”