"Perhaps I ought not to have told you that Mrs. Berryman is a money-lender," the boy said, rather uneasily; "don't you trouble about it, you can't help it."
"No," Melina agreed, "but it's so—so shameful! I understand now why everyone's been so against me—it's been on account of Gran! Oh, now I know this, I don't think I can ever go to see the Browns again! Oh, suppose they should find out—"
"You may depend they know all about your grandmother," William Jones interposed, "or at any rate Mrs. Brown does. For certain Mr. Blackmore has told her."
"The little gentleman!" The hot colour rose to Melina's cheeks, then died away, leaving her paler than before. "Does he know?" she asked in a tremulous voice.
Her companion nodded. "Mother told him," he asserted; "he was very sorry to hear it, and—"
"But he is coming to see Gran!" Melina broke in; "if he knows that she is so wicked as you say she is, why does he want to have anything to do with her?"
The boy kept a puzzled silence for a few minutes whilst he considered this point, then a gleam of comprehension crossed his face.
"Because he's a Christian," he replied; "because the love of God's in his heart—that's what makes him so kind. Folks who've got the love of God in their hearts care for other folks even when they ain't good like themselves; they want to help 'em and make 'em better."
"You don't mean to say that you think the little gentleman could care anything about Gran?"
"Yes, I do."