She and James very quickly became allies, and the boy was ever ready to amuse her, often giving up his own plans to take her for a walk to pick flowers in the hedgerow, or to sail a tiny boat for her in the pools left as the sea retired.

Mrs.Walsham found, to her surprise, that the child gave little trouble.

She was quiet and painstaking during the half hours in the morning and afternoon when she was in the school room, while at mealtimes her prattle and talk amused both mother and son, and altogether she made the house brighter and happier than it was before.
In two months the sergeant came round again.

He did not bring his box with him, having left it at his last halting place; telling James, who happened to meet him as he came into Sidmouth, that he did not mean to bring his show there again.
"It will be better for the child," he explained.

"She has done with the peep show now, and I do not want her to be any longer associated with it." Aggie was delighted to see him, and sprang into his arms, with a scream of joy, as he entered.