"Alex started to say something—heaven knows what—but Robin went right straight up to Mis' Cadoza—and afterwards I thought back to how Robin didn't make the mistake of being too grateful.
"'How I'd like them!' she says, matter-of-fact. 'But I've got a lot of people waiting for me, and I oughtn't to keep them....'
"Insley spoke up from where he was over on the edge of little Eph's bed, and I noticed Mis' Cadoza had tried to neaten up the kitchen some, and she'd set the table with oil-cloth and some clean dishes.
"'I was afraid you'd all stay,' he says, 'and I do want all the pan-cakes. Hurry on—you're keeping back our supper.'
"He nodded to Alex, smiled with us, and come and saw us out the door. Mis' Cadoza come too, and Robin and I shook hands with her for goodnight. And as Mis' Cadoza stood there in her own door, seeing us off, and going to be hostess out in her own kitchen, I wondered to myself if it was having a collar on, or what it was, that give her a kind of pretty near dignity.
"I got in the front seat of the car. Chris was back in the tonneau between Robin and Alex, and as we started he tried to tell Alex what had happened.
"'My—my—my daddy——' he says.
"'Poor little cuss,' says Alex. 'But how extremely well for the child, Robin, that the beggar died. Heavens, how I hate your going in these ghastly places. My poor Robin, what an experience for to-night! For our to-night....'
"She made a sudden move, abrupt as a bird springing free of something that's holding it. She spoke low, but I heard every word of it.