The boy also jumped. But he stopped and said, "Well?" though in a tone
that promised little.
"Come here," said Charling. "At least, of course, I mean come, if you
please."
The boy shrugged his shoulders and came towards her.
"Well?" he said again, very grumpily, Charling thought; so she said,
"Don't be cross. I wish you'd talk to me a little, if you are not too
busy. If you please, I mean, of course."
She said it with her best company manner, and the boy laughed, not
unkindly, but still in a grudging way. Then he threw himself down on
the turf and began pulling bits of it up by the roots. "Go ahead!" said
he.
But Charling could not go ahead. She looked at his handsome, sulky face,
his knitted brow, twisted into fretful lines, and the cloud behind his
blue eyes frightened her.
"Oh! go away!" she said. "I don't want you! Go away; you're very
unkind!"
The boy seemed to shake himself awake at the sight of the tears that
rushed to follow her words.
"I say, don't-you-know, I say;" but Charling had flung herself face down
on the turf and took no notice.
"I say, look here," he said; "I am not unkind, really. I was in an awful
wax about something else, and I didn't understand. Oh! drop it. I say,
look here, what's the matter? I'm not such a bad sort, really. Come,
kiddie, what's the row?"
He dragged himself on knees and elbows to her side and began to pat her
on the back, with some energy: "There, there," he said; "don't cry,
there's a dear. Here, I've got a handkerchief, as it happens," for
Charling was feeling blindly and vainly among the coloured chalks. He
thrust the dingy handkerchief into her hands, and she dried her eyes,
still sobbing.
"That's the style," said he. "Look here, we're like people in a book.
Two travellers in misfortune meet upon a wild moor and exchange
narratives. Come, tell me what's up?"
"You tell first," said Charling, rubbing her eyes very hard; "but swear
eternal friendship before you begin, then we can't tell each other's
secrets to the enemy."
He looked at her with a nascent approval. She understood how to play,
then, this forlorn child in the torn white frock.