"I should like to, miss, but I am poor, and I don't know whether I can afford the expense of a ticket."
"Would you go if your ticket were paid-by a friend?"
"You bet I would-I mean I certainly would," answered Ben, correcting his phraseology, as he remembered that he was addressing a young lady, and not one of his boy friends.
"Would you be willing to take care of me—that is, to look after me?"
Ben was certainly surprised; but he answered promptly and with native politeness: "It would be a pleasure to me."
"You were going alone-you had no friends with you?"
"None at all, miss."
"That is well," she said. "What is your name?"
"Ben Stanton."
"Do you live in the city?"