"Oh, no, you have not! When I saw how you were getting pushed about, I knew we had made a mistake in going to the Square; but—why, how grave you are looking! You surely don't think I was selfish enough to want to stay?"
"No, I don't think that! You're not a bit selfish. You're just the opposite! And you're very, very kind! If you weren't you wouldn't be so patient with me."
"Nonsense!" cried Tom, laughing, and colouring at this frank praise. "What a chap you are, Peter! You talk in such a serious, old-fashioned way sometimes—that's because you don't go to school and knock about with other boys, I expect."
"I dare say," agreed Peter. "Nellie and your Mother must be arriving at Broadstairs about now, mustn't they?" he asked a moment later.
"Yes. Oh, Peter, I do hope Nellie will get quite, quite well at Broadstairs! I know Mother and Father are really dreadfully anxious about her, though they don't say much. I've begun to miss her already. Do you know that when I went home to dinner I quite forgot, for a minute, when I opened the front door, that she wasn't somewhere about; I nearly shouted out 'Nellie!'—meaning, of course, to tell her all about that poor little girl, Grace Lee. Oh, by the way, I've been thinking! You heard Max Sordello say that Grace's father was a gipsy, didn't you? Well, did it strike you that she might be related to Moses Lee?"
"No. Do you think she can be? You asked Max Sordello if she had any relations, but he didn't seem to know of any."
"He mightn't. Anyway, if we find the Lees at Hatwell Green, I shall speak to them about Grace."
But the Lees' yellow and red caravan was not at Hatwell Green when they reached there, and the only living objects to be seen were an aged donkey and half-a-dozen geese. The boys threw themselves down on the ground in the shadow of a hedge to rest, whilst they continued their conversation.
"What do you mean to be when you're a man?" Peter asked by and by.
Tom sighed. "I'm afraid I shall have to be a clerk like Father," he said, a distinct note of distaste in his voice.