CHAPTER XIV 120
" Eh! Miss Mary!" she said half crying. " Tha ' shouldn ' t have done it--tha ' shouldn ' t! Tha ' ll get me in trouble. I never told thee nothin ' about him--but tha ' ll get me in trouble. I shall lose my 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."