Page:Elizabeth Jordan--Tales of the city room.djvu/63

 He stopped as he reached the boy and clapped him on the shoulder. The anteroom was empty save for the two. The doors behind them were closed, and they were, for the moment, safe from observation.

"By Jove, that was a close call!" said Davidson, wiping his face and dropping his happy-go-lucky air. "Chesterfield, you 're a little trump! I don't know why the dickens you did this thing for me, but I'm awfully grateful to you. If they had found me out it would have been all up with John Davidson. I 'll make it up to you, somehow, and if they had 'fired' you, I would have found another place for you. But they won't—Kelly told me so. You 're too popular. I don't wonder at your popularity," he added, with some enthusiasm, "if this is the kind of thing you do."

Chesterfield twisted himself uneasily from beneath the caressing hand.

"You need n't bother about me," he said gruffly. He had been prevaricating to Mr. Kelly so freely that it was a relief not to disguise the truth now. He indicated with his finger the closed door between them and Miss Neville.