"Well, you just run over there with her and wait. Trust everything here
to me."
He emerged from the ruck a few moments later, disheveled but triumphant.
Hat under his arm and both hands heavily laden, he made a gingerly
progress to the place of his tryst, a comparatively unpopulated corner
near the door. And there she stood, her comely youth brought into sharp
relief by her surroundings, side by side with the living hunger and
thirst of Jenny, whose yearning eyes summoned the young man like a
beacon.
Miss Carstairs happened to be looking in another direction. Varney,
standing before her, calmly took up their acquaintance where he had left
it last night at her mother's gate.
"Good evening, Miss Carstairs. I bear refreshment for your little
friend. What a magnificent evening for Hare and Reform, isn't it?"
She turned, startled at the sound of his voice, looked at him, and
looked at once away.
"Oh ... yes, indeed. I--am waiting for Mr. Hare now. Jenny, are you sure
you haven't seen him come out?"
"Yessum," said Jenny, her eyes all for the tall stranger.
Unable to resist their imploring appeal, he turned at once and delivered
his burden.
"Ice-cream--lemonade--" he made inventory--"cake with icing--tin
spoon--paper napkin in my pocket. Is there anything else?"
"I think," said Jenny, conscientiously, "there's figs."
"You do not wish any figs to-night, Jenny," declared Miss Carstairs,
rather more severely than mere figs seemed to warrant.
"_No'm!_ I thought maybe he might want some."
"I doubt if I'll take any figs to-night, either," laughed Varney. "But
mayn't I get something for you, Miss Carstairs? I'm happy to say that
the chocolate is holding out better than we feared."
"Thank you," she said, apparently addressing the child, "I don't believe
I wish anything."
Jenny here produced and handed around a small, rather dangerous-looking
paper-bag, which proved, upon investigation, to contain marshmallows.
Miss Carstairs declined. Varney, to show how unimpeachable he considered
his standing with the party, gratefully accepted.
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