“Well put, captain, excellently put,” interrupted Miss Carlaw again.
“To come to the point, Comethup, your aunt thinks that it would be wiser for you to mix with boys of your own age, and she intends to send you to school. She has already selected a good school, and——”
“And look here, Prince Charming,” broke in the old woman, “I think I know my boy well enough by this time to know that he’ll do whatever we think best, for his own sake as well as for ours. The captain here has told you very prettily why we think it’s necessary; just let me say that if you don’t like it when you get there, you can just come straight back again. I’m sure you’re brave enough to like it, and to make the best of it, although you’re only a little chap. And you shall come to me every holiday—oh, they’ve got precious long holidays, I can tell you—and you shall see the captain whenever you like. This school is only a few miles from your old home, and is right close to the sea. Of course I don’t know, but I should think it’s extremely likely that our good friend here might find time to run over to see you occasionally on half holidays.”
“Most assuredly,” said the captain.
“Well, what do you say to it all?” inquired Miss Carlaw.
Comethup’s heart had been beating a little faster than usual while they spoke; but the prospect was really more alluring than they thought, and the pill they desired him to swallow needed no gilding, for the boy’s life had been recently an unnatural one—strange and wonderful, but still unnatural; and the prospect of meeting boys of his own age, the greater prospect of learning something, and becoming a clever man, made his heart leap indeed. Then, too, the thought of frequently meeting the captain, of being within but a few miles of him, was attractive; he could scarcely hope for better fortune. After a pause he said slowly: “Of course, I should like to go to school, and—and learn; and it would be nice to see the captain, and to come back to you for the holidays. I’m quite sure I should like it.”
Miss Carlaw clapped her hands and smiled. The captain nodded at the boy approvingly. “I knew just what he’d say,” exclaimed Miss Carlaw.—“Come here, Prince Charming.”
The boy slipped down from his seat and went to her side. She drew her arm about him and said, with a tenderness that was strange to her: “You mustn’t think, Comethup, that I want to get rid of you—God forbid! But you’re all I have in the world, all I’ve got to think of or to be proud of. And I want you to be a clever man; I want to be able to point to you and say: ‘There’s my boy; match him if you can!’ That’s what I want to think. And so you’ll work hard and grow fast, and this foolish old aunt of yours will wait at home in patience until you come back to her.” Her voice had fallen almost to a whisper, and he felt her lips lightly touch his hair before she pushed him gently from her.
The final details were arranged on the morrow, not without conflicts between Miss Carlaw and the captain. The old lady would have sent the boy to school dressed as a prince; the captain was for plain clothes in order that there might be no distinction between him and his fellows, and the captain had his way. The next serious point of difference was on the question of pocket money, Miss Carlaw having firmly made up her mind that the boy must be possessed of no less a sum than a sovereign a week, and the captain urging that a half-crown would be more than he possibly could spend. The two worthy creatures came to high words over the matter, and finally arrived at a compromise: Comethup was to have five shillings a week, and the captain exacted a promise from Miss Carlaw that this was not to be supplemented by any additional sum, at all events for the present.
It had been arranged that the captain was to accompany the boy to the school and see him safely established there; it was scarcely necessary for Miss Carlaw to go, when the place was really almost on the captain’s road home. The captain, proud of having got his own way in the matter, and prouder still of his mission, was very particular in discussing matters with the principal of the school about the airing of beds and the arrangements generally for the boy’s comfort; quite gave himself airs, in a gentlemanly fashion, over the matter. But when it was all done and the two had parted at the school gate, and the captain had watched the figure of the child going back slowly across the deserted playground to his new life, the little gentleman drooped a little, and was not so cheery or confident as he had been; lingered about so long, indeed, near the gate, that he nearly lost the last train to the dull little town in which he lived, and had to make a run for it.