“And why drag this dead weight of a Sunday-school over the whole of Christendom? It is beautiful and natural that children should inquire and maturity should teach, but it is time enough to answer questions when they are asked. Do not shut up the young people against their will in a pew and force the children to ask them questions against their will.” He could not dismiss from his mind the picture of Bonnie May asking questions in her elfin yet penetrating way, and he realized that the answers she would get in that place of ordered forms and conventions might be very far from satisfactory to one of her somewhat fearful frankness and honesty. But suddenly he smiled at the pictures he was drawing in his mind. “She seems pretty well able to take care of herself,” he concluded. He came upon the heaped sections of the newspapers he had examined. That reminded him. The newspapers were not the only source of information--nor perhaps the most likely source--so far as his immediate needs were concerned. No, there was a certain visit he must make that morning. A little later he emerged from the mansion and stood for an instant on the steps in the brilliant sunlight. Then he descended the steps and was gone. CHAPTER VIII STILL UNCLAIMED Baron was on his way to see Thornburg. On six days and seven nights Thornburg was one of the busiest men in town. But there was one day in the week when he liked to pose as a man of leisure. From ten or eleven o’clock on Sunday morning, and until the latter part of the afternoon, there were few people about the theatre to disturb him or to claim his attention. And during these hours it was his practise to lean back in the comfortable chair in his private office in the theatre and look through old letters and souvenirs, if there were no callers, or to exchange current gossip or old reminiscences with the people of his profession who dropped in to see him. Usually these were managers or agents who happened to be in town, and sometimes there were veteran players who were retired, or who were temporarily unemployed. And occasionally there were politicians who liked to keep on affable terms with the source of free passes. When Baron entered the manager’s presence he found that usually engaged person quite at liberty. The little office was a place which was not without its fascination to most people. On the walls there were framed photographs of Jefferson as Rip Van Winkle, of Booth as Richard III, of Modjeska as Portia, and of other notable players. In many cases the pictures bore sprawling autographs across their faces, low enough not to hurt. Between these authentic ornaments there were fanciful sketches of dancing girls in extravagant costumes and postures, and a general ornamentation scheme of masks and foils and armor. So complacent and open-minded was Thornburg when Baron appeared that the latter came to a swift, seemingly irrelevant conclusion.