Page:MacGrath--The luck of the Irish.djvu/128

 a sort of Brother Bill kind?" William's voice shook.

"Yes. … Brother Bill!" She smiled through her tears.

"The kind you can come to if ever you happen to be in trouble?" He was rather insistent about this article in the compact.

"Yes." She gave him her hand warmly and firmly, and after that the world did not seem so dark to William.

"I wonder," he said, when the tingle of the hand-clasp died away—"I wonder if I'm superstitious? I don't know. But somehow I feel I didn't pick out this old gondola for nothing. Somebody has appointed me your guardian. But you've got to promise that when you need me you'll call me."

"I promise. If ever I need a man, strong and honest, between me and this something you hint of, I'll call to you."

She recollected this promise one dreadful night in the purlieus of Malay Street in far-away Singapore.