She halted suddenly and lowered her eyelashes, adding:
“But you hadn’t any call to buy them for me; I can’t pay you back right now.”
Jim’s reply was irrelevant.
“Why, your eyes aren’t black, after all! They’re violet-blue, the deepest blue I ever saw!” Then he caught himself up, reddening furiously, and after a moment said in a casual tone: “That’s all right about the things, Lou; you can pay me when you get some work to do. Now, go fix yourself up, and we’ll have breakfast.”
When she had disappeared into the mill he cursed himself for a fool. The child had trusted him as a comrade; what would she think if he began paying her compliments? 44What had come over him, anyway? He had seen women with violet-blue eyes in more countries than one; beautiful women with every enhancement which breeding and wealth could bestow. It must have been sheer surprise in discovering any attribute of prettiness at all about so uncompromisingly homely a girl as poor little Lou.
With this reassuring reflection he set about replenishing the fire, and presently his companion reappeared. The large, flapping hat sat oddly upon her small head with its tightly drawn-back hair, but the straight lines of the all-enveloping pink gown brought out the slender curves of her childish figure, and she didn’t seem quite so gawky, after all, as she moved toward him over the rocks.
“My, you look nice!” he said cheerfully. “I’ve brought some rolls from─”
“We’ll keep them for later,” Lou interrupted him firmly. “There’s still the end of the bread left, and goodness knows where we’ll eat again!”
They breakfasted gaily, drinking the remainder of the milk first and then boiling the 45eggs in the pan, but Lou’s remark about their next meal had made Jim think seriously of the immediate future. He had assumed a responsibility which he must fulfill, and his progress thus far under the handicaps he had spoken of had been difficult enough alone.
The little pink apron-frock had cost half of his capital, the hat twenty-five cents more, and the ribbon a dime. Five cents in addition for the rolls had left but thirty-five of the preciously hoarded pennies, and he was ninety miles from home, with a host of petty, but formidable, restrictions barring his way, and an adopted orphan on his hands.