"But—er—sort of simple?"
The girl asked it with a perfectly innocent countenance. Tunis flashed her a look that showed comprehension.
"Just about as simple as I am," he said.
"Oh!"
"Where'll we go to eat?" he asked cheerfully, considering that he had the best of it so far.
They came out upon Tremont Street and now started downtown. He desired to get no nearer to that eating house on Scollay Square. At least, not with his present companion.
"There's the Barquette," said Miss Bostwick, with the air of one used daily to the grandeur of such hostelries.
But Tunis had seen her lodgings! However, her airs amused him, and Tunis Latham was no penny-squeezer. He headed straight in for the dining room, where a gloriously appareled negro head waiter appraised him as being "all right," and Ida May got by, without knowing it, upon the captain's substantial appearance.
While the waiter was away, Tunis bluntly put his errand before her. He felt it his duty to make the offer as attractive as possible. But he did not make small the fact that the Balls were old and needed her services.
"Goodness! What do they want me for—a nurse?" she demanded tartly.