“Don't you see how fine and strong you are?” said Sophie. “And what a bright color you've got?”
“I never thought of it,” said he, and recollected the green and purple necktie.
“And to think that you've talked with her!” exclaimed Sophie, turning back to the pictures; and she added in a sudden burst of generosity, “I tell you what I'll do, Samuel—I'll give you these, and you can put them in your room!”
“You mustn't do that!” he protested.
But the girl insisted. “No, no! I know them by heart, so it won't make any difference. And they'll mean so much more to you, because you've really met her!”
CHAPTER X
Samuel presented himself the next morning and was turned over to the head gardener and duly installed as an assistant. “Let me know how you're getting along,” was young Lockman's last word to him. “And if there's anything else I can do for you come and tell me.”
“Thank you very much, sir,” said the boy gratefully; but without realizing how these magic words, pronounced in the gardener's hearing, would make him a privileged character about the place—an object of mingled deference and envy to the other servants.