His wish was miraculously answered. Another man, also big, but possessing a nice, kind voice, now stepped forward from the side pavement where he'd been standing, and spoke firmly to the apoplectic man who'd been giving Leo his dressing-down. Leo looked up at the tall man's face - he was so tall, much taller than the other man, and not fat at all. His face smiled down at Leo's kindly. After this, he held out his hand to Leo, and said, "Hi there, little fella. What's your name?"
"Leo" said Leo timorously.
"Well, Leo, do you want to go get some lemonade?"
"Yes, please". Leo was starting to lose some of his fear. He could even bear to look straight at the fat man's face as he walked away with his rescuer. The man was muttering something darkly again. Leo wondered what shoplifting was and debated about asking the kind man beside him. Before he could open his mouth to do so, however, they'd reached the huge, extremely cold shop which sold all manner of drinks. Leo loved this place, he'd come here only once before. He ascended his seat shyly and could hardly answer when the waiter kindly asked him what he wanted to drink. However, the kind man answered for him, ordering two lemonades. He then sat back and regarded Leo a little thoughtfully.
"Where are you from, Leo?", he asked after he'd regarded Leo for a while.
Leo remembered the mother from his dorm, saying he should always respond to adults politely and with respect. "One of them might adopt you, Leo," she'd said. Leo had decided that he didn't like that word - adoption. Now as he looked at that kind man in front of him, he thought that being adopted wouldn't be a bad thing, even if he had to leave all his friends behind.
"I'm from Goodman's Orphanage," he responded with alacrity. He'd been taught that very well, so if he ever got lost he could be restored. Leo had a knack for getting lost very easily, despite all efforts by the Mothers in the orphanage to keep him safe. He'd sometimes wander into nearby shops whenever they were taken to town for a treat. The dazzling windows attracted him. He'd pick up some stuff and examine them as well, and put them in his pocket absent-mindedly without paying attention. Usually he would remember to take them out, but this time he'd ambled out with an article still in his pocket, and a loud, shrill alarm had rung out, and that big, fat man had come and snatched away the product and started shouting at him. He'd been bewildered and scared then, but he was neither now.
"Did you run away from there?"
"No, I didn't, I got lost," said Leo, though he felt it would have been more adventurous to have actually run away than merely tagging behind his group and getting mixed up in the crowd." In fact," he added in a burst of confidence "I don't know my way one mile from the parameters of the place!"
This important-sounding phrase had been borrowed from one of Leo's senior Brothers. He thought it sounded very fine. The kind man smiled. "Perimeters, you mean," he said, laughing gently.
Leo nodded, though he didn't have the faintest idea of the meanings of or the difference between either word. His fright at the shop being quite forgotten, Leo asked the question uppermost in his mind, over sips of lemonade, gazing a little shyly at the kind man "Are you going to adopt me?"
The man didn't reply at first, he seemed to be thinking of something else, though he was staring directly at Leo. "Why not?" said Lucas Roxton, the young millionaire, softly. "After all, I have everything in the world but that I want most." Leo glanced at his face and saw the decision there. A smile overspread and he abandoned his lemonade to go over to the kind man. "Thank you, daddy!"
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