“You don’t understand—a child like you. It’s a pity you ever should, but in a few years’ time you will be so bound round with conventions that you will not dare to follow your own wishes, unless you make a bold stroke for liberty, as I have done, and free yourself once for all; but not many people have the courage to do that—”

“I don’t think it takes much courage to give up what one dislikes, and to do what one likes best,” I said calmly; and he gave a little jump of surprise, and stared at me over the smoke of the match with amused eyes, just as you look at a child who has said a funny thing—rather precocious for its age.

“Pray, does that wise remark apply to me or to you?” he asked; and I put my chin in the air and said—

“It was a general statement. Of course, I can’t judge of your actions, and, for myself, I can’t tell as yet what I do like. I must try both lives before I can decide.”

“Yes, yes. You must run the gauntlet. Poor little Babs!” he sighed; and after that we sat for quite an age without speaking a word. He was remembering his secret, no doubt, and I was thinking of myself and wondering if it was really true that I was going to have such a bad time. That reminded me of Miss Martin and her advice, and it came to me with a shock that I’d been home a whole month, and had been so taken up with my own affairs that I had had no time to think of my “sister.” I was in a desperate hurry to find her at once. I always am in a hurry when I remember things, and the sight of the cottages put an idea into my head.

“Do you know the people who live in these cottages, Mr Dudley? I knew the old tenants, of course, but these are new people, and I have not seen them. Are they old or young, and have they any children?”

He puffed out words and smoke in turns.

“John Williams—puff—wife—puff—one baby, guaranteed to make as much noise as five—it’s a marvel it’s quiet now—puff. You can generally hear it a mile off—”

“Is it ill, then, the poor little thing?”

“Healthiest child in the world to judge from its appearance and the strength of its lungs! Natural depravity, nothing else”—puff!

“And in the next house?”

“Thompson—oldish man—widower. Maiden sister to keep the house in order—Thompson, too, I suspect by the look of him. Looks very sorry for himself, poor soul!”

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