"
"It is kind of you. There is nothing."
Lieutenant Sutch was rather at a loss. The lad's loneliness made a
strong appeal to him. For lonely the boy could not but be, set apart as
he was, no less unmistakably in mind as in feature, from his father and
his father's fathers. Yet what more could he do? His tact again came to
his aid. He took his card-case from his pocket.
"You will find my address upon this card. Perhaps some day you will give
me a few days of your company. I can offer you on my side a day or two's
hunting."
A spasm of pain shook for a fleeting moment the boy's steady inscrutable
face. It passed, however, swiftly as it had come.
"Thank you, sir," Harry monotonously repeated. "You are very kind."
"And if ever you want to talk over a difficult question with an older
man, I am at your service."
He spoke purposely in a formal voice, lest Harry with a boy's
sensitiveness should think he laughed. Harry took the card and repeated
his thanks. Then he went upstairs to bed.
Lieutenant Sutch waited uncomfortably in the hall until the light of the
candle had diminished and disappeared. Something was amiss, he was very
sure. There were words which he should have spoken to the boy, but he
had not known how to set about the task.
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