Miss Ralston answered remorsefully.
'I agree with the doctor. I think we are all to blame. We push him too much when we ought to hold him back.'
Here Bennie made another raid on the conversation.
'He’s going to be a great man, a doctor maybe. My mother says—'
Mr. Rudinsky did not let him finish. He thought it time to insure the peace of so important an interview.
'Bennie,' said he, 'you will go mind the store, and keep the kitchen door shut.'
Bennie’s discomfiture was evident in his face. He obeyed, but not without a murmur.
'Let us make a covenant to take better care of David in the future.'
Miss Ralston was speaking when Mrs. Rudinsky appeared in the doorway. She was flushed from the exertions of a hasty toilet, for which she had fled upstairs at the approach of 'company.' She came forward timidly, holding out a hand on which the scrubbing brush and the paring knife had left their respective marks.
'How do you do, ma’am?' she said, cordially, but shyly. 'I’m glad to see you. I wish I can speak English better, I’d like to say how proud I am to see David’s teacher in my house.'