After a long, puzzling gaze she suddenly said: "Merton Gill, you come right here with all that make-up on and give mother a good big kiss!" Astonishingly to himself, he did so in the full light of day and under the eyes of one of the New York villains who had been pretending that he walked a tight-rope across the yard.

After he had kissed the girl, she seized him by both arms and shook him.

"I'd ought to have been using my own face in that scene," she said.

Then she patted his shoulder and told him that he was a good boy.
The pretending tight-rope walker had paused to applaud.

"Your act's flopping, Bo," said Miss Montague.