"He'd only run away
and hide." As she said it, her inner self convicted her tongue of
lying.
"Very likely. Yet, see here, Miss Polly,--I want to be fair to
that fellow. It doesn't follow that because he's a coward he's a
cad."
"He isn't a coward!" she flashed.
"You just said yourself that he'd run and hide."
"Well, he wouldn't, and he IS a cad."
"As you like. In any case, I shall make it a point to see him
before I leave. If he can explain, well and good. If not--" He did
not conclude.
"Our orator seems to have finished," observed the girl. "I shall
go back upstairs and write some good-bye notes to the kind people
here."
"Just for curiosity, I think I'll drive across and look at the
legless Demosthenes," said her companion. "I was going to do a
little shopping, anyway. So I'll report later, if he's revoluting
or anything exciting."
From her own balcony, when she reached it, Polly had a less
obstructed view of the beggar's appropriated corner, and she
looked out a few minutes after she reached the room to see whether
he had resumed his oratory. Apparently he had not, for the crowd
had melted away.
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