"You may be sure I won't, ma," said Ronald. "I wouldn't demean myself by taking notice of him. When Sidney wanted to invite him to join in our games I opposed it."
"You, Ronald, can always be relied upon to feel like a gentleman," said his mother, complacently. "Thank heaven! he hasn't any liking for low company."
"I am told the boy is very gentlemanly," said Mrs. Frost, a woman very different from Mrs. Percy.
Mrs. Percy shrugged her shoulders.
"That is absurd, of course," she answered. "Gentlemanly behavior isn't picked up in circuses. I told the doctor so, but he is very eccentric, and he wouldn't listen to anything against his new favorite."
"That must be rather awkward for you, as Ronald and Sidney are so much together."
"I have requested Ronald not to go to the doctor's so much while that boy is staying there. I feel that it is due to our position not to allow him to form such intimacies."
Nevertheless, when Sidney Grey got up a little party in honor of his guest, and invited Ronald among others, the young aristocrat did not decline, but presented himself promptly, notwithstanding his mother's objection to the company of the young circus rider.
Among the twenty boys and girls who assembled in the drawing-room of Dr. Grey there was not one more quiet in manner or gentlemanly in bearing than Robert Rudd.
"I wonder where the boy has picked up his high-bred manner?" thought the doctor. "It must be natural to him."