“Paddock invited me to visit him; she and her friend were cleaning up the dishes. It was her first visit, too.”
“So you took her home in your car? You did that?”
“And her friend with her. Joe is a kind of usher and policeman at the settlement house. Paddock seems to be gathering in all sorts and conditions—even me!”
“Joe!” exclaimed Mrs. Blair with more animation; and then: “You must get rid of that fellow. I don’t like him.”
Mrs. Blair spoke with so much energy that Wayne laughed aloud.
“Why, Fanny, Joe has saved my life many times. He’s been so miserable when I went bad that I’ve been ashamed to face him.”
Mrs. Blair relapsed into silence, and he saw by the flashes of the electric lamps at the corners that she was seriously troubled.
“You know without my telling you that you must let this girl alone. These chance meetings won’t occur again—if they have been chance meetings!”
“I swear it, Fanny!”
“She’s terribly poor; she has ambitions, and I’m trying to help her. She’s utterly unsophisticated, as you can see; you will ruin her future and make her wretchedly unhappy if you don’t avoid her.”