But Mrs. Downing was not to be defrauded.
“We were talking about those people on Bank Street,” she said, “the Latimers. Mrs. Stornaway says you crossed the Atlantic with the son, who has just come back. Do tell us something about him.”
“I am afraid I cannot make him as interesting to you as he was to me,” answered Baird, with his light air again.
“He does not look very interesting,” said Mrs. Stornaway. “I never saw anyone so sallow; I can’t understand Annie liking him.”
“He is interesting,” responded Baird. “Annie took one of her fancies to him, and I took something more than a fancy. We shall be good friends, I think.”
“Well, I’m sure it’s very kind of you to take such an interest,” proclaimed Mrs. Stornaway. “You are always finding something good in people.”
“I wish people were always finding something good in me,” said John Baird. “It was not difficult to find good in this man. He is of the stuff they made saints and martyrs of in the olden times.”
“What did the girl die of?” asked Mrs. Downing.
“What?” repeated Baird. “The girl? I don’t know.”
“And where did she die?” added Mrs. Downing.