Lou made no reply, but after breakfast she drew him out on the little porch.
“Jim, I–I’m not goin’ on.”
“What!” he exclaimed.
“The woman that runs this place, she–she wants a girl to help her, an’ I guess I’ll stay.” Lou’s tones were none too steady, and she did not meet his eyes. “I–I don’t believe I’d like New York.”
“You, a servant here?” He took one of her hands very gently in his. “I didn’t mean to tell you until we were nearly there, and as it is, there is a lot that I can’t tell you even now, but this much I want you to know. You’re not going to work any more, Lou. You’re going to a lovely old lady who lives in a big 130house all by herself, and there you are going to study and play until you are really grown up, and know as much as anybody.”
She smiled and shook her head.
“This is the sort of place for me, Jim. I wasn’t meant for anythin’ else, an’ if I should live to be a hundred I could never know as much as that lady at the circus who called you ‘Jimmie Abbott.’”
“What–” Jim exploded for the second time.
“At least, she said you looked like him, and if she didn’t know you were in Canada─”
“Good Lord! What was she doing there?”