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"Why, he's all ears!" she gasped. The little old gentleman started forward. "It's that dozen I boxed!" he announced. "Hey! Come out of there!" Gwendolyn's heart sank. Now she knew. From the first her fear had been that one of the dreaded three would come and fetch her out of the Land before she could find her parents.
"Hello!" she returned noncommittally. Near the table, he reached into the bulging pocket and drew out a small Manila bag. The bag was partly open at the top. He tipped his head to direct one black eye upon its contents. "Say, Miss Gwendolyn," he began, "you like old Thomas, don't you?" Gwendolyn's nostrils widened and quivered, receiving the tempting fragrance of fresh-roasted peanuts.
He was breathing hard from his contest, but smiling nevertheless. "Ah!" said he, affably. "The Poor Little Rich Girl, I see!" Gwendolyn's first impulse was to take him up in her arms. But his proud air, combined with the fact that he had grown tremendously, caused her to check the impulse. "How do you do?" she inquired politely. "I'm pretty shabby, thank you."
Next, something was slipped into her grasp. It was the lip-case! "Well, Mr. Piper," she cried out, "what do They say?" They were close by, standing side by side, gazing at nothing. For their eyes were wide open, their faces expression-less. Gwendolyn's father addressed them. "I never asked my wife to drop that sort of thing," he said gravely, " for Gwendolyn's sake. You might, I suppose."
Gwendolyn's face paled a little. There was something the matter with her mother? her dear, beautiful, young mother! The clasped hands were pressed to her breast. "Ambitious?" hazarded Louise, confidently. "It's no secret. She's got the society bee in her bonnet!" Gwendolyn caught her breath. The society bee in her bonnet? "Ah!" breathed Louise, as if comprehending. Then, "Dear! dear!"
And Jane was smiling back at him, her face so suffused with blushes that there was not a freckle to be seen. Now Jane sighed, and stood looking down with hands folded. "What good does it do to talk, though," she observed sadly. "Day in and day out, day in and day out, I have to dance attendance." It was Gwendolyn's turn to color. She got down quickly and came forward. "Sh!" warned Thomas.
It's only that I like to have him handy for just such times as this." But Gwendolyn was dwelling on the newly discovered scourge of moneyed children. "What would the kidnapers do?" she inquired. "The kidnapers," promptly answered Jane, "would take you and shut you up in a nasty cellar, where there was rats and mice and things and " Gwendolyn's mouth began to quiver. Hastily Jane put out a hand.
Gwendolyn's mother crossed them in flitting leaps, as from one roof-top to another. Her daintily shod feet scarcely touched the road, so swift was her going. A second, and she was whipped from sight at the Barn's corner.
Both slapped so hard that her hands stung. And with the result he sought. For instantly all three began going in circles, around and around, faster and faster and faster. It was Jane who first let go. She was puffing hard, and the perspiration was standing out upon her forehead. "I'm going to call the Policeman," she threatened shrilly. "Oh! Oh! Please don't!" Gwendolyn's cry was as shrill.
"The less noise the better." And with that, he lifted the small frightened thing from Gwendolyn's finger. Miss Royle, quite thrown off her poise, sank hissing to the ground. "My neuralgia's worse than ever this evening," she complained, affecting not to notice his interference. "Huh!" he grunted. "Keep away from bargain counters." The Piper came jangling up.
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