urgently. 'I swear I am not. There are some men who are strange and different from most. They have those sorts of feelings towards boys, instead of women.'
'I don't believe you!'
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'I swear it's true! There is even a law against it! That is what Mr. Jerome was accused of-did you not know that?'
He stood still, eyes wide, uncertain.
'He was accused of murdering Arthur,' he said, blinking. 'He's going to be hanged-I know.'
'Yes, I know, too. But that is why he is supposed to have murdered him, because he had that kind of relationship with him. Did you not know that?'
Slowly he shook his head.
'But I thought he attempted to do the same thing with you.' She tried to look just as confused, even though the knowledge was hardening in her mind every moment. 'And your cousin Godfrey.'
He stared at her, thoughts racing through his mind so visibly she could almost have read them aloud: confusion, doubt, a spark of comprehension.
'You mean that was what Papa meant-when he asked me-' The color rushed back to his face again, then drained away, leaving him so white the freckles stood out like dark stains. 'Mrs. Pitt-is-is that why they are going to hang Mr. Jerome?'
Suddenly he was totally a child again, appalled and overwhelmed. She disregarded his dignity entirely and put both arms around him, holding him tightly. He was smaller than he looked in his smart jacket, his body thinner.
He stood perfectly still for several moments, stiff. Then slowly his arms came up and held on to her, and he relaxed.
She could not lie to him and tell him it was not.
'Partly,' she replied gently. 'And partly what other people said as well.'
'What Godfrey said?' His voice was very quiet.
'Didn't Godfrey understand what the questions meant either?'
'No, not really. Papa just asked us if Mr. Jerome had ever touched us.' He took a deep breath. He might be clinging to her like a child, but she was still a woman, and decencies must be kept; he did not even know how to break them anyway. 'On certain parts of the body.' He found the words inadequate, but all he could say. 'Well, he did. I didn't think there was any-
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thing wrong in it at the time. It sort of happened quickly, like an accident. Papa told me it was terribly wrong, and something else was meant by it-but I didn't really know what-and he didn't say! I didn't understand about anything like-like that! It sounds horrible-and pretty silly.' He sniffed hard and pulled away.
She let him go immediately.
He sniffed again and blinked; suddenly his-dignity had returned.
'If I've told lies in court, will I go to prison, Mrs. Pitt?' He stood very straight, as though he expected the constables with manacles to come through the door any moment.
'You haven't told lies,' she answered soberly. 'You said what you believed to be the truth, and it was misunderstood because people already had an idea in their minds and they made what you said fit into that idea, even though it was not what you meant.'
'Shall I have to tell them?' His lip quivered very slightly and he bit it to control himself.
She allowed him the time.
'But Mr. Jerome has already been sentenced and they will hang him soon. Shall I go to hell?'
'Did you mean him to hang for something he did not do?'
'No, of course not!' He was horrified.
