“No; thank you,” returned Jeanne adopting the manner she had seen her mother use towards people of whom she did not approve.
The man eyed her narrowly, but the girl preserved her composure under his scrutiny.
“What’s yer got in yer basket?” he demanded presently.
A look of indignation flashed over Jeanne’s face. She opened her lips to reply. “None of your business,” as some of the girls she knew would have done, but something that her mother had once said came into her mind just as she was about to make the retort.
“My dear,” her mother had said, “no matter how rudely others may behave, be a lady. Because some one else has been impolite does not excuse it in you.”
As this came to Jeanne she closed her lips resolutely and, turning her back very decidedly, looked out of the window.
“Yer needn’t put on any of yer airs with me,” growled the fellow, who was evidently in a surly humor. “Can’t yer answer a civil question?”
Still Jeanne made no reply, and the man reached out to take hold of her basket. But the girl was too quick for him, and lifting it into her lap held on to it tightly while she placed her feet upon her satchel.
“Yer needn’t be so spunky,” said the fellow sheepishly. “I jest wanted to see if yer didn’t have somethin’ to eat.”
“If you are hungry, you should have said so,” said Jeanne, relaxing instantly, for her warm heart was always open to appeals of this nature. She opened her basket and took out some dainty sandwiches. “You are quite welcome to what you wish to eat,” she said graciously, “but you were not very nice about asking for it.”