Mr. Harding suggested that he should find them seats and bring them some supper. He found an empty sofa and Chicken Little settled down cozily between them. Here she rejoiced in unlimited sandwiches and cake and ice-cream until she suddenly remembered her promise to take Katy some wedding cake and started off on a foraging expedition.
Apparently Dick Harding and Alice did not miss her. They seemed to be having a very jolly half hour together. When Alice rose on the plea of helping Mrs. Morton, Dick Harding detained her to ask if he might come to see her. He was astonished at the confusion his simple request caused. Alice’s face flushed, then turned pale, and her hands trembled as she toyed with her handkerchief. It was a full minute before she replied.
“I—I am afraid you don’t understand, Mr. Harding. I am Mrs. Morton’s hired girl.”
Dick Harding had not understood and he was very much surprised, but he was too entirely a gentleman to hurt her by revealing it.
“I should like to come, Miss Fletcher,—if it would not embarrass you,” he said warmly.
Alice seemed troubled. She looked up at him, as he stood there regarding her with friendly eyes.
“I’m afraid it would,” she answered. “I should love to have you—but—it wouldn’t be best—you understand.”
“Yes, Miss Fletcher, I do understand, and I honor you for your frankness, but I warn you I don’t intend to let our acquaintance drop. Good-night.”
Chicken Little’s foraging was most successful. She secured enough wedding cake to furnish indigestion and dreams for a family of twelve, not to mention samples of other edibles, but she was horribly afraid her mother would see the bulging package in her coat pocket. It relieved her mind to catch Ernest filling his pockets, too.
“I am just taking a little something to the boys,” he apologized rather shame-facedly.