"The poor thing," she said, "it looks so pitiful, doesn't it? To think that once the poor dumb animals were made to labor! It is much better nowadays with electricity doing all the work."
Ralph smiled at this very feminine remark. It was like her, he thought tenderly, to feel sympathy for even this former beast of burden.
As they turned to leave the pedestal, the girl made an involuntary shrinking movement toward him. He looked up and saw, advancing toward them on Tele-motor-coasters, a tall dark man, a little younger than himself. The newcomer ignoring Ralph utterly, rolled up to Alice.
"So you are enjoying the sights of New York," he said, with no other greeting, and with a disagreeable smile on his lips.
"Yes," said the girl coldly, "I was enjoying them, very much."
He bit his under lip in an annoyed fashion, and a dull flush mounted to his hair. "I told you I'd follow you if you ran away," he said in a lower tone.
Ralph, unable to catch the words, but reading a menace in the fellow's look, stepped forward. Alice turned to him eagerly and put her hand on his arm.
"What is next on our program, Ralph?" she asked in a clear voice, while at the same time she pressed his wrist with her fingers as a signal for him to go on.
As if Fernand had not existed, she moved away, her hand still on Ralph's arm. "Please, please," she murmured as he would have turned back.
"That fellow needs his head punched," muttered Ralph savagely.