For a moment the woman's eyes wavered. She turned white and tried to move away; but the boy seized her hand and peered more closely into her face.
"I mean, if we escape and I get back into my body," he whispered, "will you get back into yours too?"
The governess made no reply, and shifted uneasily on her feet. But the boy would not let her go.
"Please answer," he urged, still in a whisper.
"Jimbo, what funny questions you ask!" she said at last, in a husky voice, but trying to smile.
"But I want to know," he said. "I must know. I believe you are giving up everything just to save me—everything; and I don't want to be saved unless you come too. Tell me!"
The colour came back to her cheeks a little, and her eyes grew moist. Again she tried to slip past him, but he prevented her.
"You must tell me," he urged; "I would rather stay here with you than escape back into my body and leave you behind."
Jimbo knew it was his Older Self speaking—the freed spirit rather than the broken body—but he felt the strain was very great; he could not keep it up much longer; any minute he might slip back into the child again, and lose interest, and be unequal to the task he now saw so clearly before him.
"Quick!" he cried in a louder voice. "Tell me! You are giving up everything to save me, aren't you? And if I escape you will be left alone——quick, answer me! Oh, be quick, I'm slipping back——"