“Oh, will you? Then do come along with me! You can wait off a little way, and I’ll let you know if you can help any. Really, of all our difficulties, I feel worse about this. It is so hard to deceive a good, honest man,” and Dorothy went out after the maid.
“Thanks,” said Tavia following. “I suppose it’s fun to fool foolish girls. Now let me show you the difference. I choose the good, honest men.”
It was plain that the girls would not agree. Tavia stopped in the wisteria corner, and Dorothy went on to the man standing near the steps.
“What is it, Jake?” she asked kindly.
He lifted his cap, and ran his fingers through his hair.
“I don’t know as I should trouble you, miss,” he said hesitatingly, “but I do feel that them girls know about my dog, and I’ve come to ask you if you—if you couldn’t get them to tell.”
This was a difficult situation for Dorothy. Why did those girls do the absurd thing?
“Jacob,” she began seriously, “if you knew that the real owner of the dog had him, would you be satisfied?”
He did not answer. His long brown fingers went over the balcony rail nervously.
“If I saw the owner have him, I would,” he said with a choke. “But there’s owners, and—thieves.”