'Do you think you ought to tell me what she says?' asked Michael. 'Wasn't it in confidence?'
'Oh, I came to you because I know you like her awfully. I've seen you looking at her.'
'Yes,' said Michael. 'She's the finest, grandest person I've ever known.'
John considered this very seriously.
'Is that because she smacked Roger's face?'
'Oh no--I don't consider that very important.' He looked at John and, with a kind of new perception that had come to him in some strange way, on this very morning, realized what the boy was going through, how resolutely determined he was that no one should know that his whole world had crumbled about him, how many stiff and new problems he was facing, how lonely he must feel with Roger gone for ever. Michael forgot everything in this new perception of John
