“You are such a dreamer,” said the boy, with his former petulance. “It was all very well when we sat before the fire⁠—when we looked into the hollow down by the flare⁠—but we are looking into the real world, now.”

“Ah, we were looking into the real world then, Charley!”

“I understand what you mean by that, but you are not justified in it. I don’t want, as I raise myself to shake you off, Liz. I want to carry you up with me. That’s what I want to do, and mean to do. I know what I owe you. I said to Mr. Headstone this very evening, ‘After all, my sister got me here.’ Well, then. Don’t pull me back, and hold me down. That’s all I ask, and surely that’s not unconscionable.”

She had kept a steadfast look upon him, and she answered with composure:

“I am not here selfishly, Charley. To please myself I could not be too far from that river.”