“I beg your pardon!—but would you mind——! Might I ask you to find me a cab? I have missed my father in the crowd—I am all alone!”
He turned and looked at the speaker, and was quite startled by the exquisite beauty of the face uplifted to his own. Such large eloquent dark eyes!—such beautiful black curly hair!—such an exquisite complexion!—a smile that fairly dazzled him!—and a figure of the most girlish and fairylike grace to crown and complete all these attractions! Hastily he raised his cap, and blushed hotly at the extreme honour he felt at being spoken to by such a beautiful woman.
“Do you mind?” murmured the fair one again. “I am afraid it is very dreadful of me to ask you!—but papa must have taken the carriage—he must have thought I had gone home with some other friends who were here to-night. And I do feel so very nervous,—I have never been left alone anywhere!”
Boy started from his stupor of admiration into instant action.
“I’ll get you a cab directly—of course I will,” he said. “Just sit down here in the corridor—it’s very draughty though, I am afraid—won’t you catch cold?”
“I have a warm cloak, thank you,” said the bewitching siren, smiling up at him. “Thank you so much!”
“A hansom or a four-wheeler?” asked Boy.
“Oh, anything! I am so sorry to trouble you!”
Boy dashed off into the street. It never for a moment occurred to him that the young lady could just as well have asked the same attention from one of the stalwart policemen on guard near the theatre door, and that perhaps it would have been more in keeping with the proprieties if she had done so. He soon secured a hansom, the smartest and cleanest he could find, and ran back to the charming creature who had so confidingly thrown herself upon his protection.
“Oh thank you! But won’t you come with me?” said the beautiful heroine of this dramatic incident. “Please do! Come home and see papa! He will be so glad!” Nothing could have been more winning than the innocent and childlike way in which she gave this invitation. She made it all the more irresistible by pressing her little daintily gloved fingers on Boy’s arm,—a touch which thrilled him through and through.