"I swear."
"Your name," she interrupted. "I, N or M, swear, you know."
"Oh, yes. Well, I, Harry Basingstoke, swear to you--"
"Charling," she interpolated; "the other names don't matter. I've got
six of them."
"That we will support--no, maintain--eternal friendship."
"And I, Charling, swear the same to you, Harry."
"Why do they call you Charling?"
"Oh! because my name's Charlotte, and mother used to sing a song about
Charlie being her darling, and I was her darling, only I couldn't speak
properly then; and I got it mixed up into Charling, father says. But
let's go on. Tell me your sad history, poor fellow-wanderer."
"My father was a king," said Harry gravely; but Charling turned such sad
eyes on him that he stopped.
"Won't you tell me the real true truth?" she said. "I will you."
"Well," said he, "the real true truth is, Charling, I've run away from
home, and I'm going to sea."
Charling clapped her hands. "Oh! so have I! So am I! Let me come with
you. Would they take a cabin-girl on the ship where you're going to, do
you think? And why did you run away? Did they beat you and starve you at
home? Or have you a cruel stepmother, or stepfather, or something?"
"No," said he grimly; "I haven't any step-relations, and I'm jolly well
not going to have any, either. I ran away because I didn't choose to
have a strange chap set over me, and that's all I am going to tell you.
But about you? How far have you come to-day?"
"About ninety miles, I should think," said Charling; "at least, my legs
feel exactly like that."
"And what made you do such a silly thing?" he said, smiling at her, and
she thought his blue eyes looked quite different now, so that she did
not mind his calling her silly. "You know, it's no good girls running
away; they always get caught, and then they put them into convents or
something."
She slipped her hand confidingly under his arm, and put her head against
the sleeve of his Norfolk jacket.
"Not girls with eternal friends, they don't," she said. "You'll take
care of me now? You won't let them catch me?"
"Tell me why you did it, then."
Charling told him at some length.
"And father never told me a word about it," she ended; "and I wasn't
going to stay to be made to wash the dishes and things, like Cinderella.
I wouldn't stand that, not if I had to run away every day for a year.
Besides, nobody wants me; nobody will miss me."
This was about the time when they found the white geranium in the
churchyard, and began to send grooms about the country on horses. And
Murchison was striding about the lanes gnawing his grizzled beard and
calling on his God to take him, too, if harm had come to the child.
"But perhaps the stepmother would be nice," the boy said.
"Not she. Stepmothers never are. I know just what she'll be like--a
horrid old hag with red hair and a hump!"
"Then you've not seen her?"
"No."
"You might have waited till you had."
"It would have been too late then," said Charling tragically.
"But your father wouldn't have let you be treated unkindly, silly."
"Fathers generally die when the stepmother comes; or else they can't
help themselves. You know that as well as I do."
"I suppose your father is a good sort?"
"He's the best man there is," said Charling indignantly, "and the
kindest and bravest, and cleverest and amusingest, and he can sit any
horse like wax; and he can fence with real swords, and sing all the
songs in all the world. There!"
Harry was silent, racking his brain for arguments.
"Look here, kiddie," he said slowly, "if your father's such a good sort,
he'd have more sense than to choose a stepmother who wasn't nice. He's a
much finer chap than the fathers in fairy tales. You never read of
_them_ being able to do all the things your father can do."
"No," said Charling, "that's true."
"He's sure to have chosen someone quite jolly, really," Harry went on,
more confidently.
Charling looked up suddenly. "Who was it chose the chap that you weren't
going to stand having set over you?" she said.
The boy bit his lip.
"I swore eternal friendship, so I can never tell your secrets, you
know," said Charling softly, "and _I've_ told _you_ every single thing."
"Well, it's my sister, then," said he abruptly, "and she's married a
chap I've never seen--and I'm to go and live with them, if you please;
and she told me once she was never going to marry, and it was always
going to be just us two; and now she's found this fellow she knew when
she was a little girl, and he was a boy--as it might be us, you
know--and she's forgotten all about what she said, and married him. And
I wasn't even asked to the beastly wedding because they wanted to be
married quietly; and they came home from their hateful honeymoon this
evening, and the holidays begin to-day, and I was to go to this new
chap's house to spend them. And I only got her letter this morning, and
I just took my journey money and ran away. My boxes were sent on
straight from school, though--so I've got no clothes but these. I'm just
going to look at the place where she's to live, and then I'm off to
sea."
"Why didn't she tell you before?"
"She says she meant it to be a pleasant surprise, because we've been
rather hard up since my father died, and this chap's got horses and
everything, and she says he's going to adopt me. As if I wanted to be
adopted by any old stuck-up money-grubber!"
"But you haven't seen him," said Charling gently. "If _I'm_ silly, _you_
are too, aren't you?"
She hid her face on her sleeve to avoid seeing the effect of this daring
shot. Only silence answered her.