For an instant Marian’s heart stood still, for there was something in the rowdy’s appearance exceedingly repulsive, but when he repeated his question, she answered timidly, “I want to find Mrs. Daniel Burt.”
“Oh, yes, Mrs Daniel Burt. I know the old lady well—lives just round the corner. Come with me and I’ll show you the way,” and the great red, rough hand was about to touch the little slender white one resting on Marian’s lap, when a blow from a brawny fist sent the rascal reeling upon the pavement, while a round, good-humored face looked into Marian’s, and a kindly voice said, “Did the villain insult you, little girl?”
“Yes—I reckon not—I don’t know,” answered Marian, trembling with fright, while her companion continued, “’Tis the first time he ever spoke civil to a woman then. I know the scamp well—but what are you sittin’ here alone for, when everybody else is goin’ hum?”
Marian felt intuitively that he could be trusted, and she sobbed aloud, “I havn’t any home, nor friends, nor anything.”
“Great Moses!” said the young man, scanning her closely, “you ain’t a beggar—that’s as sure as my name is Ben Burt—and what be you sittin’ here for, any way?”
Marian did not heed his question, so eagerly did she catch at the name Ben Burt.
“Oh, sir,” she exclaimed, grasping his arm, “are you any way related to Mrs. Daniel Burt, who once lived with Colonel Raymond at Yonkers?”
“Wall, ra-ally now,” returned the honest-hearted Yankee, “if this don’t beat all. I wouldn’t wonder if I was some connected to Mrs. Daniel Burt, bein’ she brung me up from a little shaver, and has licked me mor’n a hundred times. She’s my mother, and if it’s her you’re looking for we may as well be travelin’, for she lives all of three miles from here.”
“Three miles!” repeated Marian, “that other man said just around the corner. What made him tell such a lie?”
“You tell,” answered Ben, with a knowing wink, which however failed to enlighten Marian, who was too glad with having found a protector to ask many questions, and unhesitatingly taking Ben’s offered arm she went with him up the street, until she found the car he wished to take.