Five minutes later a pleasant looking woman of middle age descended the staircase.
“Are you the boy that wished to see me?” she asked.
“Yes, if you are Mrs. Harvey.”
“I am. But come in! Thomas, why didn’t you invite this young gentleman into the parlor?”
Thomas opened his eyes wide. So the boy whom he had treated so cavalierly was a young gentleman.
He privately put down Mrs. Harvey in his own mind as eccentric.
“Excuse me, ma’am,” he said. “I didn’t know as he was parlor company.”
“Well, he is,” said Mrs. Harvey with a cordial smile that won Rodney’s heart.
“Follow me!” said the lady.
Rodney followed her into a handsome apartment and at a signal seated himself on a sofa.