“No, I reckon we ’d bettah go home,” said Mrs. Hamilton decidedly.  “De chillen ain’t ust to stayin’ up all hours o’ nights, an’ I ain’t anxious fu’ ’em to git ust to it.”

She was conscious of a growing dislike for this man who treated her daughter with such a proprietary air.  Joe winced again at “de chillen.”

Thomas bit his lip, and mentally said things that are unfit for publication.  Aloud he said, “Mebbe Miss Kitty ‘ud like to go an’ have a little lunch.”

“Oh, no, thank you,” said the girl; “I ’ve had a nice time and I don’t care for a thing to eat.”

Joe told himself that Kitty was the biggest fool that it had ever been his lot to meet, and the disappointed suitor satisfied himself with the reflection that the girl was green yet, but would get bravely over that.

He attempted to hold her hand as they parted at the parlour door, but she drew her fingers out of his clasp and said, “Good-night; thank you,” as if he had been one of her mother’s old friends.

Joe lingered a little longer.

“Say, that was out o’ sight,” he said.

“Think so?” asked the other carelessly.

“I ’d like to get out with you some time to see the town,” the boy went on eagerly.

“All right, we ’ll go some time.  So long.”

“So long.”

Some time.  Was it true?  Would he really take him out and let him meet stage people?  Joe went to bed with his head in a whirl.  He slept little that night for thinking of his heart’s desire.

IX

HIS HEART’S DESIRE

Whatever else his visit to the theatre may have done for Joe, it inspired him with a desire to go to work and earn money of his own, to be independent both of parental help and control, and so be able to spend as he pleased.  With this end in view he set out to hunt for work.  It was a pleasant contrast to his last similar quest, and he felt it with joy.  He was treated everywhere he went with courtesy, even when no situation was forthcoming.  Finally he came upon a man who was willing to try him for an afternoon.  From the moment the boy rightly considered himself engaged, for he was master of his trade.  He began his work with heart elate.  Now he had within his grasp the possibility of being all that he wanted to be.  Now Thomas might take him out at any time and not be ashamed of him.

With Thomas, the fact that Joe was working put the boy in an entirely new light.  He decided that now he might be worth cultivating.  For a week or two he had ignored him, and, proceeding upon the principle that if you give corn to the old hen she will cluck to her chicks, had treated Mrs. Hamilton with marked deference and kindness.  This had been without success, as both the girl and her mother held themselves politely aloof from him.  He began to see that his hope of winning Kitty’s affections lay, not in courting the older woman but in making a friend of the boy.  So on a certain Saturday night when the Banner Club was to give one of its smokers, he asked Joe to go with him.  Joe was glad to, and they set out together.  Arrived, Thomas left his companion for a few moments while he attended, as he said, to a little business.  What he really did was to seek out the proprietor of the club and some of its hangers on.