"Oh, no I'm not. You don't know me well enough yet;
that's what's the matter. And you see, Julia--another thing
just because you saw that lady throwing out bread,
that aint a very good reason why you should do it.
You don't know what kind of a person she may be.
Girls have got to be so frightfully careful about all that
sort of thing."
Julia offered a constrained little laugh in comment.
"Oh, you don't know how careful I can be," she said.
"But you're not annoyed?" he entreated her--and for answer
she came behind him, and rested an arm on his shoulder,
and patted it. He stroked her hand with his own.
"That's something like the nicest niece in the world!"
he exclaimed, with fervour.
When at last she and her brother had gone, he made short
work of his breakfast, and drank his coffee at a gulp.
A restless activity suddenly informed his movements.
He lit a cigar, and began pacing up and down the room,
biting his lips in preoccupation as he went. After a little,
he opened a window, and ventured cautiously as far
out on the balcony as was necessary to obtain a view
of the street below. Eventually, he identified his nephew
and niece among the pedestrians beneath him, and he kept
them in sight till, after more than one tiresome halt at
a shop window, they disappeared round a bend in the road.
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