Wollaston reached her finally, and again caught her arm.

The pressure of the hard, warm boy hand was grateful to the little, hysterical thing, who was trembling from head to foot, with a strange rigidity of tremors.

Gladys also clutched her other sleeve.
"Say, M'ria Edgham, where be you goin' ?" she demanded.
"I'm going to find my little sister," gasped out Maria.

She gave a dry sob as she spoke.
"My!" said Gladys.
"Now, Maria, hadn't you better go back home ?" ventured Wollaston.
"No," said Maria, and she ran on towards the station.
"Come home with me to my mother," said Wollaston, pleadingly, but a little timidly.

A girl in such a nervous strait as this was a new experience for him.
"She can go home with me," said Gladys.