When Bonnie May got up into the attic she gave one swift thought to the fact that Mr. Addis would be coming to the house before long, and that she would not be free to receive him. Flora would be surprised to see him; but then, she concluded, Flora ought to think all the more highly of him if she decided that he had come without waiting for an invitation.
Then her mind was diverted from Mr. Addis and his affairs. It was diverted by an impulse which compelled her to put her arms swiftly about Clifton’s neck, and Jack’s, and express again her joy at seeing them.
“You dear boys!” she exclaimed, “it makes me feel so good—and so bad—to see you again. Oh, those old days!”
They all found chairs, and for a little time Bonnie May leaned forward in hers, her shoulders drooping, her eyes filled with yearning. Then she aroused herself. “Do you remember the time we went to Cheyenne in a sort of coach, and the soldiers made us have dinner—a Christmas dinner—with them?” she asked.
Clifton remembered. He said: “And you put on a cap that came way down over your eyes, and ran into the fat old captain who had come in ‘unbeknownst,’ as one of the soldiers said, to inspect the quarters!”
Said Bonnie May: “And the soldiers wanted us to change our play, ‘The Captain’s Daughter,’ so that it would be a military play instead of a sea story!”
There was a moment of silence, and then, for no apparent reason, the child and her visitors joined in a chorus of laughter.
“That old play—I remember every word of the heroine’s part!” said Bonnie May. “She wasn’t much, was she? I remember wishing I was big enough to have the part instead of her.”
She shook her head gently in the ecstasy of recalling the old atmosphere, the old ambitions, the old adventures. Then she clasped her hands and exclaimed: “Let’s do an act of it, just for fun! Oh, let’s do! If you could only think how hungry I’ve been——”
She did not wait for an answer. She hurried to Thomason’s door and knocked. Her movements expressed a very frenzy of desire—of need. When Thomason did not respond she opened his door, and looked into his room.