and had had no one to compare himself with.
Mary had indeed been rather like him herself and
since she had been at Misselthwaite had gradually
discovered that her own manners had not been of
the kind which is usual or popular. Having made
this discovery she naturally thought it of enough
interest to communicate to Colin. So she sat and
looked at him curiously for a few minutes after
Dr. Craven had gone. She wanted to make him
ask her why she was doing it and of course she
did.

"What are you looking at me for?" he said.

"I'm thinking that I am rather sorry for Dr.
Craven."

"So am I," said Colin calmly, but not without
an air of some satisfaction. "He won't get
Misselthwaite at all now I'm not going to die."

"I'm sorry for him because of that, of course,"
said Mary, "but I was thinking just then that it
must have been very horrid to have had to be polite
for ten years to a boy who was always rude. I
would never have done it."

"Am I rude?" Colin inquired undisturbedly.

"If you had been his own boy and he had been
a slapping sort of man," said Mary, "he would
have slapped you."

"But he daren't," said Colin.

"No, he daren't," answered Mistress Mary,

[[293]]

p292 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p293w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p294

v?