Tractable as they were in all other ways, anxious as they seemed to please him, on this one point they were obdurate: never would they stay together.
They were not angry with each other--David was sure of that, for they were always very especially polite, and rose, and stood, and bowed in a most delightful fashion.

Still, he sometimes thought that they did not quite like each other, for always, after the one went away, the other, left behind, was silent and almost stern--if it was Mr.Jack; and flushed-faced and nervous--if it was Miss Holbrook.

But why this was so David could not understand.
The span of handsome black horses came very frequently to the Holly farmhouse now, and as time passed they often bore away behind them a white-faced but happy-eyed boy on the seat beside Miss Holbrook.
"My, but I don't see how every one can be so good to me!" exclaimed the boy, one day, to his Lady of the Roses.
"Oh, that's easy, David," she smiled.

"The only trouble is to find out what you want--you ask for so little." "But I don't need to ask--you do it all beforehand," asserted the boy, "you and Mr.Jack, and everybody." "Really?
That's good." For a brief moment Miss Holbrook hesitated; then, as if casually, she asked: "And he tells you stories, too, I suppose,--this Mr.Jack,--just as he used to, doesn't he ?" "Well, he never did tell me but one, you know, before; but he's told me more now, since I've been sick." "Oh, yes, I remember, and that one was 'The Princess and the Pauper,' wasn't it?
Well, has he told you any more--like--that ?" The boy shook his head with decision.
"No, he doesn't tell me any more like that, and--and I don't want him to, either." Miss Holbrook laughed a little oddly.
"Why, David, what is the matter with that ?" she queried.
"The ending; it wasn't nice, you know." "Oh, yes, I--I remember." "I've asked him to change it," went on David, in a grieved voice.

"I asked him just the other day, but he wouldn't." "Perhaps he--he didn't want to." Miss Holbrook spoke very quickly, but so low that David barely heard the words.
"Didn't want to?
Oh, yes, he did! He looked awful sober, and as if he really cared, you know.