And Dickon helped him, and the Magic—­or whatever it was—­so gave him strength that when the sun did slip over the edge and end the strange lovely afternoon for them there he actually stood on his two feet—­laughing.

CHAPTER XXIII

MAGIC

Dr. Craven had been waiting some time at the house when they returned to it.  He had indeed begun to wonder if it might not be wise to send some one out to explore the garden paths.  When Colin was brought back to his room the poor man looked him over seriously.

“You should not have stayed so long,” he said.  “You must not overexert yourself.”

“I am not tired at all,” said Colin.  “It has made me well.  To-morrow I am going out in the morning as well as in the afternoon.”

“I am not sure that I can allow it,” answered Dr. Craven.  “I am afraid it would not be wise.”

“It would not be wise to try to stop me,” said Colin quite seriously.  “I am going.”

Even Mary had found out that one of Colin’s chief peculiarities was that he did not know in the least what a rude little brute he was with his way of ordering people about.  He had lived on a sort of desert island all his life and as he had been the king of it he had made his own manners 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, thinking the thing out quite without prejudice.  “Nobody ever dared to do anything you didn’t like—­because you were going to die and things like that.  You were such a poor thing.”

“But,” announced Colin stubbornly, “I am not going to be a poor thing.  I won’t let people think I’m one.  I stood on my feet this afternoon.”

“It is always having your own way that has made you so queer,” Mary went on, thinking aloud.