“Down here, or my professional employment?” asked Richard, waking up.
“What do ye do fer a livin?”
“Oh! I see. I’m a lawyer,” Dick replied, glibly.
“A lawyer, eh? An’ I take it as yer not a married man, else ye wouldn’t be payin’ attentions to this ’ere orphan girl.”
“You don’t understand,” Maggie interrupted, startled. “Dido was in trouble and Mr. Treadwell found her and brought her here.”
“Martin should mind his own business,” exclaimed Dido, indignantly. “If this was my house I would show him the door.”
“Not on my account,” interposed Dick, warmly. “If Mr. Shanks is a friend of the family he has a right to know the reason of a stranger being here.”
“These young girls ’ere, sir,” explained frightened Martin Shanks, “have no parints to take care on them, an’ I says to meself, when Mis’ Williams wuz a lyin’ dead here, that I’d see no harm come aninst them while I wuz about.”
“That was very good of you, Mr. Shanks,” cordially replied Dick, and then, bidding the girls good night, he left. Martin Shanks, wishing to see the stranger well out of the neighborhood before he quit his post of guardianship for the remainder of the night, accompanied Dick as far as Broadway, and Dick was not sorry to have his escort.