“I am the son of a kind and indulgent mother,—God bless her. My father died before I knew him—”
He hurried on:—
“I fell in bad ways in spite of her saintly love, and ran away to sea.”
“Look here, my friend,” I said, “I am sorry to spoil your little tale, but it is an old one. Can’t you give me something new? Now try again.”
He looked at me unsteadily under his thin eyebrows, shuffled restlessly in his seat, and said with something like a sob in his voice:—
“Well, sir, I will. You have been kind to me and taken my little gal in; you saved her life, and, for a change, I’ll tell you the truth.”
He drew himself up a little too ostentatiously, threw his head back, and said proudly:—
“I am a gentleman born.”
“Good,” I laughed. “Now you are on the right track, and besides you look it.”