"A very good man——"
"Are there many of them or only one?"
"I think there must be a good many, but that doesn't matter," Miss Maggie said hastily, rather flurried by these interruptions.
"I like to understand things as I go along. Guardie says you must never pass a word you don't understand. Yes, a Quaker gentleman, a very good man—what next?"
"Well, this Quaker gentleman had a class for boys, a Sunday class——"
"Was he a minister as well as a Quaker?" asked the incorrigible Montagu.
"No, no, he just taught them for kindness, and he was much pleased, because one day he asked his class whether they would rather kill a man or be killed themselves, and all of them, with one accord, every single boy, said he'd rather be killed himself than take the life of a fellow-creature."
Miss Maggie paused and looked at Montagu for admiration of these noble sentiments.
He shook his head vigorously. "I'm not like that," he said decidedly. "Why, I'd rather kill ten men than be killed myself—and I'd try to do it too, first."
CHAPTER XVI