In the middle of the night, Mary again hears crying. She follows the sound through the house’s dark corridors until she finds a gloomy room with heavy curtains over the windows. A boy about her age is crying fretfully in the bed. He is thin and pale with very large gray eyes. At first, because neither child knows about the existence of the other, they think they are dreaming. Eventually, they decide they are both awake and real. The boy explains that he is Colin Craven, the son of Uncle Archibald.

Mary learns that Colin has never traveled or been to school. People give him everything he wants because getting angry makes him ill. Mary tells him about her life in India and here at Misselthwaite Manor. Mary tells him everything about his mother’s garden except that she has found her way in. Colin is fascinated by Mary’s stories about the garden, the robin, Dickon, and Ben.

Colin tells Mary that no one told them about each other because Colin hates for anyone to see him or talk about him. He never leaves his room and rarely sees his father. He has overheard the servants saying that his father almost hates him.