Part 15 (2/2)

”He must be just like a dozen other Englishmen in there,” he said.

”And they wouldn't give me time to ask each one if he were your uncle.”

The little girl sighed, and said, ”It doesn't matter, thank you,” and, sitting down again on the seat, resumed her patient waiting, drooping forward with eyes rather dim.

Tinker studied her face, and his keen eye told him what was wrong.

”Have you had dejeuner?” he said sharply.

”No-o-o,” said the little girl reluctantly.

”Then you've had nothing since your coffee this morning?”

”No, but it doesn't matter. Uncle is rather forgetful,” said the little girl, but her lips moved at the thought of food as a hungry child's will.

”This won't do at all! Come along with me. It's rather late, but we'll find something.”

Her face brightened for a moment; but she shook her head, and said, ”No, I mustn't go away from here. Uncle might come back, and he would be so angry if he had to look for me.”

Tinker shrugged his shoulders, turned on his heel, and was gone. She looked after him sadly. She would have liked him to stay a little longer; it was so nice to talk to an English boy after ten days in this strange land; and he seemed such a nice boy. But she only drooped a little more, and stared out over the bright sea with misty eyes, composing herself to endure her hunger.

Tinker went swiftly to the restaurant of the Hotel des Princes, where the waiters greeted him with affectionate grins, and, addressing himself to the manager, set forth his new friend's plight, and his wishes. The manager fell in with them on the instant, only too pleased to have the chance of obliging his most popular customer; and, in five minutes, Tinker left the restaurant followed by a waiter bearing a tray of dainties, all carefully chosen to tempt the appet.i.te of a child.

They took their way to the gardens, and the little girl brightened up at the sight of the returning Tinker. But when the waiter set the tray on the seat, she flushed painfully, and though she could not draw her hungry eyes away from the food, she stammered, ”T-t-thank you very m-m-much. B-b-but I haven't any money.”

Tinker gave the waiter a couple of francs, and bade him come for the tray in half an hour. Then he said cheerfully, ”That's all right. The food's paid for; and whether you eat it or not makes no difference. In fact, you may as well.”

The child looked from his face to the food and back again, wavering; then said, with a little gasp, ”Oh, I am so hungry.”

Tinker took this for a consent, put some aspic of pate de foie gras on her plate, and watched her satisfy her hunger with great pleasure, which was not lessened by the fact that, for all her hunger, she ate with a delicate niceness. He had feared from her neglected air that her manners had also been neglected. After the aspic, he carved the breast of the chicken for her, helped her to salad, and mixed the ice water with the _sirop_ to exactly the strength he liked himself; after the chicken, he helped her to meringues, and after the meringues lighted the kirsch of the _poires au kirsch_, which he had chosen because it always pleased him to see the kirsch burn, and ate one of the pears himself, while she ate the others. When she had finished her little sigh of content warmed his heart.

He put the tray behind the seat, and settled down beside her for a talk. Now that she was no longer hungry, she was no longer woebegone, and her laugh, though faint, was so pretty that he found himself making every effort to set her laughing. They talked about themselves with the simple egoism of children; and he learned that her name was Elsie Brand; that she was ten years old--nearly two years younger than himself--that her mother had died many years ago, and that she had lived with her father in his Devons.h.i.+re parsonage by the sea till last year, when he, too, had died. Then her Uncle Richard had taken her away to live with him in London. Her story of her life in London lodgings set Tinker wondering about that Uncle Richard, and piecing together the details Elsie let fall about his late rising, his late going to bed, his morning headache and distaste for breakfast, he came to the conclusion that he was a bad hat who lived by his somewhat inferior wits.

At the end of her story he tried to persuade her to come to the sea with him and seek amus.e.m.e.nt there. But he failed; she would not leave the seat. He gathered, indeed, from her fear of vexing her uncle that that bad hat was in the habit of slapping her if she angered him, and, for a breath, he was filled with a fierce indignation which surprised him; she looked so frail. But he did not ask her if it were so, for his delicacy forewarned him that the question would provoke a struggle between her loyalty and her truthfulness. He entertained her, therefore, with his reminiscences, and enjoyed to the full the admiration and wonder which filled her face as he talked. Absorbed in one another, they paid no heed to the pa.s.sing of the hours; and the sudden fall of twilight surprised them.

They began to speculate whether Uncle Richard had had enough of his gambling, and would come and fetch her. But, even now, Elsie was not impatient, so inured had she been to neglect. She only looked anxious again. Tinker, on the other hand, was impatient, very impatient, with Uncle Richard, whom he was disposed to regard as a gentleman in great need of a kicking. Moreover, the chill hour after sunset, so dangerous on that littoral, was upon them, and he considered with disquiet the thin stuff of the child's frock.

Presently he said abruptly, ”I've promised my father to wear an overcoat during the fever hour. I must be off and get it, and a wrap for you. You won't be frightened, if I leave you alone?”

”No,” Elsie said bravely, but her tone belied the word.

”Well, walk up and down quickly, so that you don't get a chill. If you keep near the seat, your uncle can't miss you if he comes.”

”Very well,” said Elsie, rising obediently. ”Only--only--if you could get back soon.”

”I will,” said Tinker, and he bolted for the hotel.

Elsie walked up and down, trying to feel brave, but the odd shapes which the bushes a.s.sumed in the dim light daunted her not a little, and she strove to drive away the fancy that she saw people lurking among them. Tinker was gone a bare seven minutes; but to the timid child it seemed a very long while, and she welcomed his return with a gasp of relief.

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