The doctor did not hear, for he was walking defiantly down the main street, waving his gold-headed cane, while the boy clung to his hand, and walked with bent head, crying silently, but fighting hard to keep it back.
The doctor saw it, and pressed the boy’s hand kindly.
“Yes,” he said to himself; “I’ll show old Danby now. The very boy I wanted. Ah,” he added aloud; “here we are.”
Chapter Five.
A “Reg’lar” Bad One.
Maria, the doctor’s maid, opened the door, and as she admitted her master and his charge, her countenance was suggestive of round O’s.
Her face was round, and her eyes opened into two round spots, while her mouth became a perfectly circular orifice, as the doctor himself took off the boy’s cap, and marched him into the drawing-room, where Helen Grayson was seated.
On his way to the house, and with his young heart swelling at having to part from the only being who had been at all kind to him—for the recollection of the rough tramp had become extremely faint—the boy had had hard work to keep back his tears, but no sooner had he passed the doctor’s door than the novelty of all he saw changed the current of his thoughts, and he was full of eagerness and excitement.