Fanny smiled again, and observed that that was curious too.
“So it is,” said Katie, “very odd that papa should like the old women and I should like the old men; but so it is. Now, Fan, we’ll get ready and—oh how provoking! That must be another visitor! People find papa out so soon wherever we go, and then they give him no rest.”
“A boy wishes to see you, miss,” said Mrs Cackles.
“Me?” exclaimed Katie in surprise.
“Yes, miss, and he says he wants to see you alone on important business.”
Katie looked at Fanny and smiled. Fanny returned the smile, and immediately left the room.
“Show him in, Mrs Cackles.”
The landlady withdrew, and ushered in no less a personage than Billy Towler himself, who stopped at the door, and stood with his hat in his hand, and an unusually confused expression in his looks. “Please, miss,” said Billy, “you knows me, I think?”
Katie admitted that she knew him, and, knowing in her heart that she meant to befriend him, it suddenly occurred to her that it would be well to begin with a little salutary severity by way of punishment for his former misdeeds.
“Last time I saw you, miss, I did you,” said Billy with a slight grin.