She essayed a last jaunty smile. “Unless on your hands and knees. Don’t forget that part.”
“Is it likely I could forget such an insult?”
“Well then, that’s all right!” Her smile became braver. “We’ll crawl in together, two little babies. Come along, petsy.” And she stooped down comically.
“How can you be so childish, Jinny?”
“Isn’t it all childish? Down you go, Willie!”
But he stiffened himself physically as well as morally. “Give in to such a humiliation?”
“You won’t really be giving in,” she said, with a happy thought. “With only one arm, you can only come in on your hand and knees. So you’ll outwit him after all. Come along, poor little lopsided creature, Jinny’ll help you—and Gran’fer will forget to count your limbs, my poor brave boy!”
“It’s you that are forgetting,” he said harshly. “It’s impossible.”
“What’s impossible?”
“That I should crawl to your grandfather.”