XI
BENNIE COMES TO THE SETTLEMENT HOUSE
It was Bennie who came first to the Settlement House. Shyly, almost, heslipped through the great doors--as one who seeks something that he doesnot quite understand. As he came, a gray kitten, creeping out from theshadows of the hall, rubbed affectionately against his leg. And Bennie,half unconsciously--and with absolutely no recognition--stooped to patits head. Rose-Marie would have cried with joy to have seen him do it,but Rose-Marie was in another part of the building, teaching tinychildren to embroider outlines, with gay wool, upon perforated bits ofcardboard. The Young Doctor, passing by the half-opened door of thekindergarten room, saw her there and paused for a moment to enjoy thesight. He thought, with a curious tightening of his lips, as he leftnoiselessly, that some day Rose-Marie would be surrounded by her ownchildren--far away from the Settlement House. And he was surprised at thesick feeling that the thought gave him.
"I've been rather a fool," he told himself savagely, "trying to send heraway. I've been a fool. But I'd never known anything like her--not in allof my life! And it makes me shiver to think of what one meeting with someunscrupulous gangster would do to her point of view. It makes me want tofight the world when I realize how an unpleasant experience would affecther love of people. I'd rather never see her again," he was surprised,for a second time, at the pain that the words caused him, "than to haveher made unhappy. I hope that this man of hers is a regular fellow!"
He passed on down the hall. He walked slowly, the vision of Rose-Marie, adream child held close to her breast, before his eyes. That was why,perhaps, he did not see Bennie--why he stumbled against the boy.
"Hello," he said gruffly, for his voice was just a trifle hoarse (voicesget that way sometimes, when visions _will_ stay in front of one's eyes!)"Hello, youngster! Do you want anything? Or are you just looking around?"
Bennie straightened up. The kitten that he had been patting rubbedreassuringly against his legs, but Bennie needed more reassurance thanthe affection of a kitten can give. The kindness of Rose-Marie, thestories that she had told him, had given him a great deal of confidence.But he had not yet learned to stand up, fearlessly, to a big man with agruff voice. It is a step forward to have stopped hurting the smallerthings. But to accept a pretty lady's assurance that things larger thanyou will be kind--that is almost too much to expect! Bennie answered justa shade shrinkingly.
"Th' kids in school," he muttered, "tol' me 'bout a club they come tohere. It's a sort of a Scout Club. They wears soldier clo's. An' theydoes things fer people. An' I wanter b'long," he gulped, noisily.
The Young Doctor leaned against the wall. He did not realize how tall andstrong he looked, leaning there, or he could not have smiled sowhimsically. To him the small dark boy with his earnest face, standingbeside the gray kitten, was just an interesting, rather lovable joke.
"Which do you want most," he questioned, "to wear soldier clothes, or todo things for people?"
Bennie gulped again, and shuffled his feet. His voice came, at last,rather thickly.
"I sorter want to do things fer people!" he said.
More than anything else the Young Doctor hated folk, even children, whosay or do things for effect. And he knew well the lure that soldierclothes hold for the small boy.
"Say, youngster," he inquired in a not too gentle voice, "are youtrying to bluff me? Or do you really mean what you're saying? And ifyou do--why?"
Bennie had never been a quitter. By an effort he steadied his voice.
"I mean," he said, "what I'm a-tellin' yer. I wanter be a good boy. Mypa, he drinks. He drinks like--" The word he used, in description, wasnot the sort of a word that should have issued from childish lips. "An'my big brother--he ain't like Pa, but he's a bum, too! I don't wanter belike they are--not if I kin help it! I wanter be th' sort of a guy KingArthur was, an' them knights of his'n. I wanter be like that there St.George feller, as killed dragons. I wanter do real things," unconsciouslyhe was quoting from the gospel of Rose-Marie, "wi' my life! I wanter be agood husban' an' father--"
All at once the Young Doctor was laughing. It was not an unkindlaugh--it gave Bennie heart to listen to it--but it was exceedinglymirthful. Bennie could not know that the idea of himself, as a husbandand father, was sending this tall man into such spasms of merriment--hecould not know that it was rather incongruous to picture his smallgrubby form in the shining armour of St. George or of King Arthur. But,being glad that the doctor was not angry, he smiled too--his strange,twisted little smile.
The Young Doctor stopped laughing almost as quickly as he had begun. Withsomething of interest in his face he surveyed the little ragged boy.
"Where," he questioned after a moment, "did you learn all of that stuffabout knights, and saints, and doing things with your life, and husbandsand fathers? Who told you about it?"
Bennie hesitated a moment. Perhaps he was wondering who had given thisstranger a right to pry into his inner shrine. Perhaps he was wonderingif Rose-Marie would like an outsider to know just what she had told him.When he answered, his answer was evasive.
"A lady told me," he said. "A lady."
The Young Doctor was laughing again.
"And I suppose," he remarked, with an effort at solemnity, "thatgentlemen don't pass ladies' names about between 'em--I suppose that youwouldn't tell me who this lady of yours may be, even though I'd like tomeet her?"
Bennie's lips closed in a hard little line that quirked up at one end. Heshook his head.
"I'd ruther not," he said very slowly. "Say--Where's th' Scout Club?"
The Young Doctor shook his head.
"It's such a strange, old-fashioned, young person!" he informed the emptyhallway. And then--"Come with me, youngster," he said kindly, "and we'llfind this very wonderful club where small boys learn about doing thingsfor people--and, incidentally, wear soldier clothes!"
Bennie, following stealthily behind him, felt that he had found anotherfriend--something like his lady, only different!