Page:Ballinger Price--The Happy Venture.djvu/89

Rh "Your folk will be anxious," he said. "We must be off. But you will come to me again, will you not?"

Nothing could have kept Kirk away, and he said so.

"And what's your name, please?" he asked. "I've told you mine." A silence made him add, "Of course, if you mind telling me—"

Silence still, and Kirk, inspired, said:

"Phil was reading a book aloud to Mother, once, and it was partly about a man who made wonderful music and they called him 'Maestro.' Would you mind if I called you Maestro—just for something to call you, you know?"

He feared, in the stillness, that he had hurt his friend's feelings, but the voice, when it next spoke, was kind and grave.

"I am unworthy," it said, "but I should like you to call me Maestro. Come—it is falling dusk. I'll go with you to the end of the meadow."

And they went out together into the April twilight.

Ken and Felicia were just beginning to be really anxious, when Kirk tumbled in at the