This Crane fellow seemed to take praise about as well as he took anything else. Malachi had never met a constable so modest and... level-headed? Was that the appropriate word, when the man looked like a well-placed word would knock him down?

Malachi didn't push him. Didn't place that word, whatever it might've been. As his formalities were tempered by his niece's presence, so, too, were his less desirable qualities that might have driven him to figure Crane out.

He kept at Nettie's side as they followed after the constable, pointing things out to her here and there when he recognized them. Malachi might not have been in town for long, but he had wandered the streets enough by now to have a fairly decent understanding. Once the mentioned boarding house came into view, he glanced at his niece for her reaction, and then turned his attention back to Crane.

"That sounds fair," said Malachi. And safe.

It was also a good place for him to know about regardless of whether Nettie stayed there or not, just in case they ever happened to want a visit from a Catholic priest. Who didn't love a priest showing up on their doorstep?

Another quiet cough.

"What do you think?" he inquired with another glance towards Nettie. "They might let you in to see it first, if you asked."

Perhaps not himself or Crane... but they weren't the ones thinking of staying there.