"I'll be even with you yet," she declared, "that I will! You needn't think I'll forget this! You bumped against me on purpose, you know you did!"
The boy did not attempt to deny it. He was feeling glad that none of his friends had been present to witness what had passed, for he would not have liked it to have been known that Melina had boxed his ears; but he admitted to himself that he had done wrong, and, not wishing to prolong the scene, he murmured a few words of apology and turned away. The little girl gazed after him wrathfully till he disappeared within the door of his own home, then, overcome with agitation, her tears broke bounds and ran down her cheeks.
"Oh, don't cry, don't cry!" said the stranger kindly. All this while he had been holding her by the shoulder, but now he released his grasp, and, putting his hand into his pocket, produced two pennies, which he gave her, saying as he did so:
"There, you will be able to buy another two ounces of tea for your grandmother, and then you won't be kept without your dinner, will you?"
"No," she answered, with a brightening face. "Thank you, sir. I didn't want to go without my dinner because I'm—oh, so hungry! I only had a little bit of dry bread for breakfast at eight o'clock."
"And now it is past noon! Do you live alone with your grandmother?"
"Yes," sighed Melina. "My mother died when I was a baby, and father—he was Gran's son—gave me to Gran. I wish he hadn't, I'm sure."
"Your grandmother is very poor?" he questioned.
The little girl's face clouded again, and she hesitated before she answered "I don't know."
He looked at her in puzzled silence, noticing her unkempt appearance. She would have been a pretty child if she had been less painfully thin, but, as it was, she was a mere bag of bones. Whilst he was thus scrutinising her, she was no less attentively observing him. He was a very little gentleman, she thought, but there was something about him which she found attractive—perhaps it was the expression of good will with which he was regarding her. No one had ever looked at her like that before.