Jim behaved very well, considering. He did not laugh. For a moment I thought he was going to; if he had I don't know what I should have done, said things for which I might have been sorry later on, probably. But he did not laugh. He didn't even express the tremendous surprise which he must have felt. Instead he shook hands again with both of us and said it was fine, bully, just the thing.
“To tell the truth, Miss Cahoon,” he declared, “I have been rather fearful of this pet infant of ours. I didn't know what sort of helpless creature he might have coaxed into roaming loose with him in the wilds of Europe. I expected another babe in the woods and I was contemplating cabling the police to look out for them and shoo away the wolves. But he'll be all right now. Yes, indeed! he'll be looked out for now.”
“Then you approve?” I asked.
He shot a side-long glance at me. “Approve!” he repeated. “I'm crazy about the whole business.”
I judged he considered me crazy, hopelessly so. I did not care. I agreed with him in this—the whole business was insane and Hephzibah's going was the only sensible thing about it, so far.
His next question was concerning our baggage. I told him I had left it at the railway station because I was not sure where it should be sent.
“What time does the 'Princess Eulalie' sail?” I asked.
He looked at me oddly. “What?” he queried. “The 'Princess Eulalie'? Twelve o'clock, I believe, I'm not sure.”
“You're not sure! And it is after nine now. It strikes me that—”
“Never mind what strikes you. So long as it isn't lightning you shouldn't complain. Have you the baggage checks? Give them to me.”