Meg and Robin went away as he told them. It was in one sense rather a relief.
“I wonder what she’ll say to him,” said Meg.
“There’s no knowing,” Robin answered. “But whatever it is, he will make it all right. He’s one of those who have found out human beings can do things if they try hard enough. He was as lonely and poor as we are when he was twelve. He told me so.”
What Aunt Matilda said was very matter-of-fact.
“I must say,” she said, as the children walked off, “you seem to have been pretty good to them.”
“They’ve been pretty good to me,” said John Holt. “They’ve been pretty good for me, though they’re not old enough to know it.”
“They’re older than their age,” said Aunt Matilda. “If they’d been like other children the Lord knows what I should have done with them. They’ve been no trouble in particular.”
“I should imagine not,” said John Holt.
“It was pretty business-like of them,” said Mrs. Jennings, with another dry laugh, “to make up their minds without saying a word to any one, and just hustle around and make their money to come here. They both worked pretty steady, I can tell you, and it wasn’t easy work, either. Most young ones would have given in. But they were bound to get here.”
“They’ll be bound to get pretty much where they make up their minds to, as life goes on,” remarked John Holt. “That’s their build.”