"Were you speaking to me?" inquired Jane, withdrawing her eyes from the safe horizon and looking down at the child.
"Yeth," he assented, "I want a piece of bwead an' butter, an' I want a dwink of water, an' I——"
"Come with me, Buster! I'll get them for you," volunteered the young man. He was deliberately divesting himself of the scarlet harness. "Won't you come in?" he went on, turning to Jane. "I see it's beginning to rain."
Reluctantly she passed in at the door he held wide for her. "Please sit down," he urged. "I'm sure Mrs. Belknap will be at home very soon. She's only gone out for an hour or so."
"I want a d-w-i-nk!" vociferated the small boy.
"Yes, I gathered as much from your remarks; come on, old fellow."
Jane sat down, and the young man and the child disappeared into the unknown regions beyond. Jane could hear the boy's shrill voice, and the deeper replies of the man. Her cheeks were very red, and she sat stiffly erect. She felt unreasonably vexed with herself, with the child, but most of all with the young man. He was unlike any masculine person of her acquaintance, she reflected; still he had spoken to her very civilly, though not in the tone a gentleman should use to an inferior. But was he, after all, a gentleman? These class distinctions were said to be very puzzling in America, Jane remembered. She resolved not to speak to this particular young American again. It would not, she concluded sagely, be the correct thing to do.
A distant crash of breaking crockery, an infantile shriek, an exclamation of deep dismay preceded a hasty opening of the closed door. The ingenuous countenance of the man was thrust hastily within. "Oh, I beg your pardon! but could you come out and—er—help me a minute? Buster has tipped the milk all over himself, and I—oh, please do—that's a good girl—. I don't know what in thunder—. Hold hard, old fellow, I'm coming!"
The last by way of reply to the frenzied shrieks of rage and despair which issued from the rear.
Jane's austere expression relaxed perceptibly as she surveyed the agitated and imploring countenance of the young American.