“Nicky carve!” both exclaimed.
“He has talent. He helps me and he works like a man; all night if we must hurry,” declared the cousin proudly. He seemed very fond of his small cousin Nicky.
“Lov-ell-ly!” breathed Cara, to whom the news brought a vision of little Nicky as an artist. Nicky, the obscure Italian boy, whom they had been talking about adopting. How absurd! And this splendid young man, Benato, was the person who had been hiding behind the poverty of the Marcusi home. And the girls talked of “black handers!”
She could not help smiling when she thought of it all. How unfair it is to judge people merely by appearances? What a bright future might be in store for these two cousins! Obscure indeed!
“And you don’t need to be afraid of the health authorities,” Dr. Hale told Benato, turning from his talk with the women. “They are fair, you know. They would examine you and they would find you sound. You have done wonders with your exercise and diet. Keep it up and live out here. When you do go to the city spend all the time you can in the parks,” the doctor advised. “We all need the air but a boy like you must have it,” he urged most emphatically.
“Yes sir,” replied the artist deferentially. “And I thank you. We did not know how to reach a doctor until Nicky told us you were our friend. You have made us all happy,” he declared, gratefully.
There was more hand-kissing from the women, and Cara whispered to Babs that they had better be going when she noticed the old grandmother mopping her brown face with her browner apron. She, Cara, didn’t want both her cheeks kissed the way foreigners do it.
And now Babs was talking to Nicky. Of course she had to know about Miss Davis’ model.
“You can come right along with us,” she told the boy. “There’s plenty of room in the car, and, Nicky, I just must tell Miss Davis as quickly as you tell me. She has been so good to wait, and you don’t know what it has meant to her,” she pointed out sensibly.
“Yes, I do,” the boy declared. “But I couldn’t help it. A feller’s got to keep his word, ain’t he?”