“Of me? How delightful! Please consider it granted if it comes within my limited powers.”
“That wasn’t the way I ought to have begun; I meant first to discover whether you ever had any daytime to bestow on commonplace people who have nothing to do with regular business.”
“Occasionally I do,” he said, genially. “For instance, to-morrow afternoon I happen to have some unoccupied hours, and I have just been bemoaning the sadness of my fate that they should fall on a day when Ray is especially occupied every minute. Can I use them in your service? If so, command me.”
“That depends; I wonder if you have enough courage to take care of an old woman with a crutch, who has to be helped in and out of street cars and up and down steps, and is a nuisance generally?”
“Try me,” he said, gayly. “My mother considers me a very careful escort, and I should like exceedingly to give you a proof of her excellent judgment.”
“Then I will confess that I have a childish desire to go on a secret expedition. I’ve heard so much about the house where Jean and Derrick were born that I want to see it with my own eyes. They say it is vacant and for sale, so one could get permission to look at it; Ray has told me a good deal about the rose gardens and the outlook from her room; I just want to see it all, myself; but I can’t ask my brother, or even the girls, to take me out there, because, besides seeming foolish, it would be hard on them.”
Her amused listener hastened to assure her that it would be a pleasure to him to take her through the fine old place, and the views, especially from the east and west windows, were worth seeing; they would go to-morrow.
“But how could we manage it, I wonder?” she said, with the eagerness of a child. “I can’t tell you how careful they all are not to talk about that place to one another; even Derrick and Jean, who were too young when they left it to have much personal recollection, hardly ever speak of it before the others, because they do not want to recall old times to them. It seems my brother had planned that the place should at some time be given to Ray, and it makes it especially hard on that account. I should feel real mean to seem to be going there just out of idle curiosity.”
“I understand,” he said. “We must manage it; let me think. How would you like to take a trip to the park to view the new Lincoln Monument? That is in the same general direction, and it is quite a fad just now to ride out there to see the statue.”
She had only time to assure him that she would be delighted, and to receive his promise to attend himself to all the details, when Ray came flying down stairs, with apologies for delays.