“I tried to make a dinner for you that would remind you of home,” she said. “We Saturnians don’t use food of this kind. Are you satisfied?”
Jack had risen, and could think on the spur of the moment of no better answer than the polite banality, “Only your presence at the table could have improved it!” while Jim seized the opportunity to stuff a couple of red apples and some sugar-coated cakes into his pockets.
“We ought to have waited to learn who our benefactress was,” Jack went on, being somewhat embarrassed; “but I thought only how hungry I was, and how providential—”
“Providence lets us help it sometimes!” she interrupted, laughing. “One must feel lonely in a strange country; but in their hearts all people are alike.”
Here Jim ventured an observation.
“I guess, miss, my boss t’ought you an’ Miss Mir’am was some alike dat time de blizzard hit us, back dere!”
Jack turned red; but the girl merely looked amused.
“I supposed it was one of your terrestrial customs,” she observed. “Oh, it doesn’t matter a bit; your kisses were delightful!”
This was putting the shoe on the other foot. Jack could not get the red out of his face, but he was glad to absolve this friendly little creature from the charge of unseemly boldness. After all, was it not he who had made the mistake?
“How did you know where we were?” he asked, to get the conversation on less ticklish ground.