“I don’t like to ask her,” said Lucy; or Dorothy the stewardess, was rather sharp and short with her.
Bessie came close.
“Would you be offended if some one tried to be kind to Lucy?” she asked, seizing her opportunity.
She was quite surprised to see how pleasantly Waters smiled as he answered,—
“Not I. Those that are friends to my Lucy are friends to me.”
“Some children laughed at her,” said Bessie, wishing to put the case as gently as she could.
The engineer frowned and nodded.
“I told him,” said Lucy.
“There’s no excuse for them,” continued Bessie, looking out over the waters as if she were talking more to herself than to the man, “but perhaps they would not have done it, if—if—if Lucy’s clothes were—were a little prettier.”