“Well,” he added, slowly, “I do not know on the whole that there is anything for me to say.”
“Then why did you come?”
“Simply to see you once more.”
“And what was the use of that?” Courage asked, she hardly knew why.
“No use, simply to enjoy the pathetic sort of pleasure of all last times; but I do not myself understand why you could not have stayed on and made us a visit? You would have made my grandmother very happy.”
“Oh, Harry, come off!” said Brevet, who had unavoidably acquired a boy’s measure of slang, and who was old enough to appreciate when Harry was not his frank, honest self. “That’s all stuff about Grandnana—you want Miss Courage to stay for yourself just as much as Grandnana wants her for herself and I want her for myself.”
“‘Children and fools speak the truth,’” said Harry, looking straight at Courage.
“Yes, that’s the blessed beauty of them,” looking straight back at him.
“Other people don’t dare,” said Harry.
“Other people lack courage.”