Gallantry had not yet developed in Jerome.

He saw in this pretty little girl only another child, and, moreover, one finely shod and clothed, while he went shoeless and threadbare.

He looked sulkily at her blue silk hood, pulled his old cap down with a twitch to his black brows, and shrugged himself closer to the warm rock.
The little girl eyed his bare toes.

"Be you cold ?" she ventured.
"No, ain't cold," grunted Jerome.

Then he caught sight of something in her hand--a great square of sugar-gingerbread, out of which she had taken only three dainty bites as she came along, and in spite of himself there was a hungry flash of his black eyes.
Lucina held out the gingerbread.