He tried to divert her mind by asking her to order the luncheon, but she was too worried and too shy to do so and he had to make out the menu by himself.
Then he turned to her with a cheering air.
"Now, Jennie," he said, "I want you to tell me all about your family.
I got a little something of it last time, but I want to get it straight.
Your father, you said, was a glass-blower by trade.
Now he can't work any more at that, that's obvious."
"Yes," she said.
"How many other children are there?"
"Six."
"Are you the oldest?"
"No, my brother Sebastian is.
He's twenty-two."
"And what does he do?"
"He's a clerk in a cigar store."
"Do you know how much he makes?"
"I think it's twelve dollars," she replied thoughtfully.
"And the other children?"
"Martha and Veronica don't do anything yet. They're too young.
My brother George works at Wilson's. He's a cash-boy.
He gets three dollars and a half."
"And how much do you make?"
"I make four."
He stopped, figuring up mentally just what they had to live on.
"How much rent do you pay?" he continued.
"Twelve dollars."
"How old is your mother?"
"She's nearly fifty now."
He turned a fork in his hands back and forth; he was thinking earnestly.
"To tell you the honest truth, I fancied it was something like that, Jennie," he said.
"I've been thinking about you a lot.
Now, I know.
There's only one answer to your problem, and it isn't such a bad one, if you'll only believe me."
He paused for an inquiry, but she made none.
Her mind was running on her own difficulties.
"Don't you want to know?" he inquired.
"Yes," she answered mechanically.
"It's me," he replied.
"You have to let me help you.
I wanted to last time.
Now you have to; do you hear?"
"I thought I wouldn't," she said simply.
"I knew what you thought," he replied.
"That's all over now.
I'm going to 'tend to that family of yours.
And I'll do it right now while I think of it."
He drew out his purse and extracted several ten and twenty-dollar bills—two hundred and fifty dollars in all.
"I want you to take this," he said.
"It's just the beginning.
I will see that your family is provided for from now on.
Here, give me your hand."