“I’m going to eat one bit; t’other’s for Billy Jingle. He’s had measles, and been very bad, and he’s such a good chap.”
“You shall have a piece to send to your schoolfellow,” said Helen, with her eyes a little moist now, for the boy’s generous spirit was gaining upon her, and she looked at him with more interest than she had displayed a few minutes before.
The boy took a tremendous bite, and began to munch as he sat upon a velvet-covered hassock; but he jumped up directly, and held out the bitten cake again, to say, with his mouth full—
“Oh, do have a bit. It’s lovely.”
Helen smiled, and laid her hand upon the boy’s shoulder, as she shook her head, when to her surprise he caught the soft white hand in his left, gazed hard at it, and then pressed it against his cheek, making a soft purring noise, no bad imitation of a cat.
Then he sat eating and holding the hand which was not taken away, till, as the little stranger munched on in the full enjoyment of the wondrous novelty, the doctor said sharply, “Helen, come here.”
The boy stared, but went on eating, and the doctor’s daughter crossed the room to where her father sat.