place
and what'll mother do!"

"You won't lose your place," said Mary. "He was glad I came. We
talked and talked and he said he was glad I came."

"Was he?" cried Martha. "Art tha' sure? Tha' doesn't know what he's
like when anything vexes him. He's a big lad to cry like a baby, but
when he's in a passion he'll fair scream just to frighten us. He knows
us daren't call our souls our own."

"He wasn't vexed," said Mary. "I asked him if I should go away and he
made me stay. He asked me questions and I sat on a big footstool and
talked to him about India and about the robin and gardens. He wouldn't
let me go. He let me see his mother's picture. Before I left him I
sang him to sleep."

Martha fairly gasped with amazement.

"I can scarcely believe thee!" she protested. "It's as if tha'd walked
straight into a lion's den. If he'd been like he is most times he'd
have throwed himself into one of his tantrums and roused th' house. He
won't let strangers look at him."

"He let me look at him. I looked at him all the time and he looked at
me. We stared!" said Mary.

"I don't know what to do!" cried agitated Martha. "If Mrs. Medlock
finds out, she'll think I broke orders and told thee and I shall be
packed back to mother."

"He is not going to tell Mrs. Medlock anything about it yet. It's to
be a sort of secret just at first," said Mary firmly. "And he says
everybody is obliged to do as he pleases."

"Aye, that's true enough--th' bad lad!" sighed Martha, wiping her
forehead with her apron.

"He says Mrs. Medlock must. And he wants me to come and talk to him
every day. And you are to tell me when he wants me."

"Me!" said Martha; "I shall lose my place--I shall for sure!"

"You can't if you are doing what he wants you to do and everybody is
ordered to obey him," Mary argued.

"Does tha' mean to say," cried Martha with wide open eyes, "that he was
nice to thee!"

"I think he almost liked me," Mary answered.

"Then tha' must have bewitched him!" decided Martha, drawing a long
breath.

"Do you mean Magic?" inquired Mary. "I've heard about Magic in India,
but I can't make it. I just went into his room and I was so surprised
to see him I stood and stared. And then he turned round and stared at
me. And he thought I was a ghost or a dream and I thought perhaps he
was. And it was so queer being there alone together in the middle of
the night and not knowing about each other. And we began to as