Page:The Lark - E Nesbit, 1922.djvu/99

100 isn't really a dragon, it's only a baby drakeling. And besides. . ." Jane had not enough experience to enable her to perceive that he only paused there so that she might ask, "Besides what?" She asked it.

"Besides—I deserve some slight concession." He added something which she could only just hear. She would have liked to ask, "What was that you said?" but experience comes quickly and she did not ask it. And really she was almost sure that what he had said was, "I have kept away from you for a week."

She stood silent.

"Well," he said, "does the princess relent? May I go on scraping the paint off?"

"Oh, do as you like!" said Jane, and went out into the garden. Again she was not quite sure of his answering words. They certainly sounded like: "I wish I could!"