a girl like me have a
companion? Don't they most always in books? You shall stay here at Gray
Manor as my--chum."

Beryl still looked doubtful. "I'm too young--"

"That's just why I want you. Oh, I just can't bear to think of my
guardian going away and leaving me here alone. You see I promised myself
that I'd be happy while Jimmie's having his chance--that's why I came,
you know. But this house is so big and so old and Mr. Harkness and Mrs.
Budge are so old that I know it's going to be hard not to think of
Jimmie and our lovely home and the birds. But if you'd stay it would be
easier. Oh, say you will, say you will."

Beryl stared at Robin with a suspicious scrutiny. She firmly believed
that rich people never did anything except for themselves and Robin, no
doubt, was like all the others. Yet she was such a queer little thing
that perhaps she _was_ trying to be "nice" to her and make a soft place
for her. And Beryl would not allow _that_ for a moment.

"You can study with me, too. That Mr. Tubbs isn't so very bad. And we'll
read together out of all those books in the library. And play--I never
had a real chum because Jimmie thought the girls and boys who went to
the school I did, might make fun of my being lame. Poor Jimmie, he
always minded my being lame much more than I did because he's an artist
and shivers when anything isn't perfect. You shall have a bed in my
room--there's ever so much space. Oh, say you will."

Beryl frowned, uncertainly. "I don't want a penny I don't earn. But if I
can really _do_ things for you--"

"Oh, of course you can, lots of things. But you shan't wear those
uniforms--for then you wouldn't be a girl like me. Oh, we'll have _such_
fun. Let's take this stuff right down."

It took the girls only a very little time to transfer Beryl's belongings
and to establish them in Robin's room, Beryl working mechanically,
unable to believe her good fortune. Then, at Robin's command, she
followed her while she went in search of her guardian.

Cornelius Allendyce and Percival Tubbs, sitting in a blue cloud of cigar
smoke, were pleasantly discussing the pros and cons of the tariff
question upon which they agreed, when Robin interrupted them.

"Please excuse me, but this is very important." Her breathlessness
startled the two men. "I've engaged Beryl to be my chum. I--I thought I
might be lonely here at Gray Manor. I want her to study with me, too.
And do everything. This is she."

Cornelius All