‘It was so stupid of Dr. Hurst to get himself turned out like that, wasn’t it?’ continued Babs.
‘He–perhaps he didn’t know,’ said Jill, with some hesitation.
‘You can’t be a beast without knowing it,’ answered Barbara, positively.
‘Are you sure he is a beast?’ asked Jill, who was still looking out of the window, though she had chosen her silk some moments ago.
‘Oh, he’s not a beast now. I love him. Don’t you?’ cried the child, enthusiastically.
Jill began putting her work away in a great hurry. ‘It’s time for tea,’ she remarked.
Barbara did not seem to have heard. The dreamy look had returned to her face, and she was almost thinking aloud.
‘You see,’ she murmured, ‘however nice he is now, he must walk round the world seven times, and kill a giant, and rescue a beautiful princess, before he can be disenchanted a second time. You can’t alter that. It’s a pity you haven’t got to be rescued or anything, Jill, because then––’
‘If you talk any more, child,’ interrupted Jill, with decision, ‘you will be too tired to have a visitor after tea.’
Jill was a nice person, Barbara settled again in her mind, as they had tea together out of Finny’s private tea-set that the Canon had given her last Christmas. She was so nice that she even slipped away afterwards, when Christopher came into the room, so that he and Babs could have their talk together without feeling that somebody else was listening. For all that, neither of them seemed to find it easy to begin, and they remained looking at each other in silence for some moments after Jill had closed the door upon them.