Dickie did not understand then why he suddenly felt as though he were going to choke. His head felt as though it were going to burst. His ears grew very hot, and his hands and feet very cold.
"I know'd right enough," he said suddenly and hoarsely; "an' I needn't a-gone if I 'adn't wanted to."
"He's feverish," said the lady, "he doesn't know what he's saying. Look how flushed he is."
"I wanted to," said Dickie; "I thought it 'ud be a lark. And it was too."
He expected to be shaken and put down. He wondered where his crutch was. Mr. Beale had had it under his arm. How could he get to Gravesend without a crutch? But he wasn't shaken or put down; instead, the lady gathered him up in her arms and stood up, holding him.
"I shall put him to bed," she said; "you shan't ask him any more questions to-night. There's time enough in the morning."
She carried Dickie out of the drawing-room and away from the other people to a big room with blue walls and blue and gray curtains and beautiful furniture. There was a high four-post bed with blue silk curtains and more pillows than Dickie had ever seen before. The lady washed him with sweet-smelling water in a big basin with blue and gold flowers on it, dressed him in a lace-trimmed nightgown, which must have been her own, for it was much too big for any little boy.
Then she put him into the soft, warm bed that was like a giant's pillow, tucked him up and kissed him. Dickie put thin arms round her neck.
"I do like you," he said, "but I want farver."
"Where is he? No, you must tell me that in the morning. Drink up this milk" – she had it ready in a glass that sparkled in a pattern – "and then go sound asleep. Everything will be all right, dear."
"May Heavens," said Dickie, sleepily, "bless you, generous Bean Factress!"
"A most extraordinary child," said the lady, returning to her husband. "I can't think who it is that he reminds me of. Where are the others?"
"I packed them off to bed. There's nothing to be done," said her husband. "We ought to have gone after those men."
"They didn't get anything," she said.
"No – dropped it all when I fired. Come on, let's turn in. Poor Eleanor, you must be worn out."
"Edward," said the lady, "I wish we could adopt that little boy. I'm sure he comes of good people – he's been kidnapped or something."
"Don't be a dear silly one!" said Sir Edward.
That night Dickie slept in sheets of the finest linen, scented with lavender. He was sunk downily among pillows, and over him lay a down quilt covered with blue-flowered satin. On the foot-board of the great bed was carved a shield and a great dog on it.
Dickie's clothes lay, a dusty, forlorn little heap, in a stately tapestry-covered chair. And he slept, and dreamed of Mr. Beale, and the little house among the furze, and the bed with the green curtains.
CHAPTER III
THE ESCAPE
When Lady Talbot leaned over the side of the big bed to awaken Dickie Harding she wished with all her heart that she had just such a little boy of her own; and when Dickie awoke and looked in her kind eyes he felt quite sure that if he had had a mother she would have been like this lady.
"Only about the face," he told himself, "not the way she's got up; nor yet her hair nor nuffink of that sort."
"Did you sleep well?" she asked him, stroking his hair with extraordinary gentleness.
"A fair treat," said he.
"Was your bed comfortable?"
"Ain't it soft, neither," he answered. "I don't know as ever I felt of anythink quite as soft without it was the geese as 'angs up along the Broadway Christmas-time."
"Why, the bed's made of goose-feathers," she said, and Dickie was delighted by the coincidence.
"'Ave you got e'er a little boy?" he asked, pursuing his first waking thought.
"No, dear; if I had I could lend you some of his clothes. As it is, we shall have to put you into your own." She spoke as though she were sorry.
Dickie saw no matter for regret. "My father 'e bought me a little coat for when it was cold of a night lying out."
"Lying out? Where?"
"In the bed with the green curtains," said Dickie. This led to Here Ward, and Dickie would willingly have told the whole story of that hero in full detail, but the lady said after breakfast, and now it was time for our bath. And sure enough there was a bath of steaming water before the fireplace, which was in quite another part of the room, so that Dickie had not noticed the cans being brought in by a maid in a pink print dress and white cap and apron.
"Come," said the lady, turning back the bed-clothes.
Somehow Dickie could not bear to let that lady see him crawl clumsily across the floor, as he had to do when he moved without his crutch. It was not because he thought she would make fun of him; perhaps it was because he knew she would not. And yet without his crutch, how else was he to get to that bath? And for no reason that he could have given he began to cry.
The lady's arms were round him in an instant.
"What is it, dear? Whatever is it?" she asked; and Dickie sobbed out —
"I ain't got my crutch, and I can't go to that there barf without I got it. Anything 'ud do – if 'twas only an old broom cut down to me 'eighth. I'm a cripple, they call it, you see. I can't walk like wot you can."
She carried him to the bath. There was scented soap, there was a sponge, and a warm, fluffy towel.
"I ain't had a barf since Gravesend," said Dickie, and flushed at the indiscretion.
"Since when, dear?"
"Since Wednesday," said Dickie anxiously.
He and the lady had breakfast together in a big room with long windows that the sun shone in at, and, outside, a green garden. There were a lot of things to eat in silver dishes, and the very eggs had silver cups to sit in, and all the spoons and forks had dogs scratched on them like the one that was carved on the foot-board of the bed up-stairs. All except the little slender spoon that Dickie had to eat his egg with. And on that there was no dog, but something quite different.
"Why," said he, his face brightening with joyous recognition, "my Tinkler's got this on it – just the very moral of it, so 'e 'as."
Then he had to tell all about Tinkler, and the lady looked thoughtful and interested; and when the gentleman came in and kissed her, and said, How were we this morning, Dickie had to tell about Tinkler all over again; and then the lady said several things very quickly, beginning with, "I told you so, Edward," and ending with "I knew he wasn't a common child."
Dickie missed the middle part of what she said because of the way his egg behaved, suddenly bursting all down one side and running over into the salt, which, of course, had to be stopped at all costs by some means or other. The tongue was the easiest.
The gentleman laughed. "Weh! don't eat the egg-cup," he said. "We shall want it again. Have another egg."
But Dickie's pride was hurt, and he wouldn't. The gentleman must be very stupid, he thought, not to know the difference between licking and eating. And as if anybody could eat an egg-cup, anyhow! He was glad when the gentleman went away.
After breakfast Dickie was measured for a crutch – that is to say, a broom was held up beside him and a piece cut off its handle. Then the lady wrapped flannel around the hairy part of the broom and sewed black velvet over that. It was a beautiful crutch, and Dickie said so. Also he showed his gratitude by inviting the lady to look "'ow spry 'e was on 'is pins," but she only looked a very little while, and then turned and gazed out of the window. So Dickie had a good look at the room and the furniture – it was all different from anything he ever remembered seeing, and yet he couldn't help thinking he had seen them before, these high-backed chairs covered with flowers, like on