"_I_ was the cross one. Please forgive me, and let's be friends again."
Now that was better than a dozen sermons on the beauty of forgiveness, and did Charlie more good, for it showed him how sweet humility was, and proved that Rose practised as she preached.
He shook the hand warmly, then drew it through his arm and said, as if anxious to recover the good opinion with the loss of which he had been threatened,--
"Look here, Rosy, I've put the ring back, and I'm going to try again. But you don't know how hard it is to stand being laughed at."
"Yes, I do! Ariadne plagues me every time I see her, because I don't wear ear-rings after all the trouble I had getting ready for them."
"Ah, but her twaddle isn't half as bad as the chaffing _I_ get. It takes a deal of pluck to hold out when you are told you are tied to an apron-string, and all that sort of thing," sighed Charlie.
"I thought you had a 'deal of pluck,' as you call it. The boys all say you are the bravest of the seven," said Rose.
"So I am about some things, but I _cannot_ bear to be laughed at."
"It is hard, but if one is right won't that make it easier?"
"Not to me; it might to a pious parson like Arch."
"Please don't call him names! I guess _he_ has what is called moral courage, and _you_ physical courage. Uncle explained the difference to me, and moral is the best, though often it doesn't look so," said Rose thoughtfully.
Charlie didn't like that, and answered quickly, "I don't believe he'd stand it any better than I do, if he had those fellows at him."
"Perhaps that's why he keeps out of their way, and wants you to."
Rose had him there, and Charlie felt it, but would not give in just yet, though he was going fast, for, somehow, in the dark he seemed to see things clearer than in the light, and found it very easy to be confidential when it was "only Rose."
"If he was my brother, now, he'd have some right to interfere," began Charlie, in an injured tone.
"So do I," answered Charlie, and then they both laughed at his inconsistency.
The laugh did them good, and when Prince spoke again, it was in a different tone,--pensive, not proud nor perverse.
"You see, it's hard upon me that I have no brothers and sisters. The others are better off and needn't go abroad for chums if they don't like. _I_ am all alone, and I'd be thankful even for a little sister."