"You were at it for the best part of an hour, I should think," the boy proceeded, "howling like a good 'un! I wondered how you could keep it up. If you hadn't stopped when you did, mother would have paid Mrs. Berryman a visit; she threatened to, and—"
"Oh, I'm very glad she didn't," interrupted Melina; "if she had, Gran would have served me worse than ever afterwards."
"And yet you say you aren't afraid of your grandmother!"
"Not now. She's ill."
"Ill? Perhaps she'll die."
Melina shook her head; there was hopelessness in the gesture. "No such luck!" she exclaimed callously.
"Oh, Melina, you wicked girl, to speak like that!" William was really shocked, and looked it. "Has she had a doctor?" he inquired.
"No. She says she can't afford one, and wouldn't have one if she could; she says it's a bad cold she's got."
"I dare say it is. I've been home from school several days with a bad cold myself; this is the first time I've been out. I don't stay away from school for no reason, Melina, like you."
Melina regarded her neighbour with a sneer on her face, then deigned to explain that her absence from school to-day was accounted for by the fact of her grandmother's illness.