Edwin never doubted that the child had been with the stout woman whom he had seen stumbling over her voluminous skirts up the car steps.

At last he stepped forward and spoke, with a moist blush overspreading his face, toeing in and teetering with embarrassment.
"Say," he began.
The attention of the whole company was at once riveted upon him.

He wriggled; the blood looked as if it would burst through his face.
Great drops of perspiration stood upon his forehead.

He stammered when he spoke.

He caught a glimpse of Maria's blue-and-orange trimmings, and looked down, and again the black light of his shoes, which all the dust of the day had not seemed to dim, flashed in his eyes.