"Yes—he insists on that. And Sabina will come."
"But don't hope too much of it," said Ernest. "I regard this as the thin end of the wedge—no more than that. If Estelle can win his confidence, then she may do great things; but she won't win it at one picnic. I know him too well. He's a mass of contradictions. Some days most communicative, other days not a syllable. Some days he seems to trust you with his secrets, other days he is suspicious if you ask him the simplest question. He's still a wild animal, who occasionally, for his own convenience, pretends to be tame."
"I shan't try to tame him," said Estelle. "I respect wild things a great deal too much to show them the charms of being tame. But it's something that he's coming, and if once he will let me be his chum in holidays, I might bring him round to Ray."
She planned the details of the picnic and invited Raymond to imagine himself a boy again. This he did and suggested various additions to the entertainment.
"Did Sabina agree easily?" he asked, still returning to the event as something very great and gratifying.
"Not willingly, but gradually and cautiously."
"She's softer and gentler than she was, however. I can assure you of that," said Mr. Churchouse.
"She thought it might be a trap at first," confessed Estelle.
"A trap, Chicky! You to set a trap?"
"No, you, Ray. She fancied you might mean to surprise the boy and bully him."