“But haven’t you any hypothesis?”
“I cannot work on the system of trial and error,” replied the Wonder.
Our conversation went no further this afternoon, for Mrs. Berridge came in to lay the cloth. She looked askance, I thought, at the figure on the window-sill, but she ventured no remark save to ask if I was ready for my supper.
“Yes, oh! yes!” I said.
“Shall I lay for two, sir?” asked Mrs. Berridge.
“Will you stay and have supper?” I said to the Wonder, but he shook his head, got up and walked out of the room. I watched him cross the farmyard and make his way over the Common.
“Well!” I said to Mrs. Berridge, when the boy was out of sight, “that child is what in America they call ‘the limit,’ Mrs. Berridge.”
My landlady put her lips together, shook her head, and shivered slightly. “He gives me the shudders,” she said.