'Never mind the wasp. Did you see when Henry went out?'
'I saw him come in first,' said John, 'and Miss Fosbrook order him up and say she would send him his dinner, and come and speak to him presently. So I watched to catch her when she was coming up to him, and I saw Mary bring him up some mince veal, and the last bit of the gooseberry pie; and then, very soon, he bolted right downstairs. I didn't think he could have had time to eat the pie; and I was going to see if there was a bit left, when I saw Bessie coming up, and I whipped up again.'
'Then nobody went into the room between Henry and Bessie?'
'No; there wasn't any time.'
The whole room was quite silent. There was no sound but a quick short breathing from the Captain: but he had rested his brow upon his hand, and his face could not be seen. It was as if something terrible had flashed upon him, and he was struggling with the first shock, and striving to deal with it. If they had seen him in a tempest, with his ship driving to pieces on a rock, he would not have been thus shaken and dismayed. However, by the time he looked up again, he had brought his face back to its resolute firmness, and he spoke in a clear, stern, startling voice, that made all the children quake, and some catch hold of each other's hands: 'Henry! tell me what you have done with your theft!'
Miserable Henry! He did not try to deny it any longer; but burst out into a loud sobbing cry, 'O Papa! Papa! I meant to have put it back again! I couldn't help it!'
'Tell me what you have done with it!' repeated the Captain.
'I--I paid it to Farmer Grice; I was obliged; and I thought I could have put it back again; and some of it was my own!'
'Fivepence-farthing!' cried David. 'You thief, you!'
The child's fists were clenched, and his young face all one scowl of passion, quite shocking to see. His father put him aside, and said, 'Hush, David! no names.--Now, Henry, what do you say to your sister for your false accusation, which has thrown your own shame on her?'
'Oh, no, no, Papa; he never did accuse me!' cried Bessie, for the first time bursting into tears. 'He never said I did it; that was only Davie's fancy; and it has made Susie and Sam so kind, I have not minded it at all. Please don't mind that, Papa!'
'Come away, Henry!' said the Captain; 'now that your sister has been cleared, we had better have the rest out of the sight of these tender-hearted little girls.'
He stood up, and without a word, stroked down Elizabeth's smooth brown hair, raised her face up by the chin, and kissed her forehead, the only place free from tears; then he took Henry by the shoulder, and marched him out of the room. Bessie could not stop herself from crying, and was afraid of letting Uncle John see her; so she flew out after them, and straight up-stairs to her own room. Miss Fosbrook and Susan both longed to follow her, but they had missed this opportunity; and the sound of voices outside showed so plainly that the Captain and Henry were in the hall that they durst not open the door.
Everyone was appalled, and nothing was said for a few seconds. The first to speak was Annie, in a low, terror- stricken whisper, yet with some curiosity in it: 'I wonder what Papa will do to him?'
'Give him nine dozen, I hope!' answered David through his small white teeth, all clenched together with rage.
'For shame, Davie!' said Susan; 'you should not wish anything so dreadful for your brother.'
'He has been so wicked! I wish it! I WILL wish it!' said David.
'Hush, David!' said Miss Fosbrook; 'such things must not be said. I will talk to you by and by.'
'I am glad poor Bessie is cleared!' added Susan; 'though I always knew she could not have done it.'
'To be sure--I knew it was Hal!'
'Sam! you did?--why didn't you tell?' cried Annie.
'I wasn't--to say--sure,' said Sam; 'and I couldn't go and get him into a scrape. I thought he might tell himself, if he could ever make up the money again!'
'Yes,' said Susan; 'he would have done that. He always fancied he should get a sovereign from Colonel Carey.'
'He talked till he thought so,' said Sam.
'But what made you guess he had done so, Sam?' said Miss Fosbrook. 'I did suspect him myself, but I never felt justified in accusing him of such a thing.'
'I don't know! I saw he had been getting into a fix with those Grevilles, and had been sold somehow. They said something, and got out of my way directly, and I was sure they had done some mischief, and left him to pay the cost.'
'Did you ask him?' said Susan.
'What was the use? One never knows where to have him. He will eat up his words as fast as he says them, with his AT LEAST, till he doesn't know what he means. Nor I didn't want to know much of it.'
'Still I can't think how you could let poor Bessie live under such a cloud,' said Christabel.
'You didn't believe it,' said Sam, 'nor anyone worth a snap of my finger. Besides, if I had known, and had to tell, what a horrid shame it would have been if the naval cadetship had been to be had for him! I knew Bessie would have thought so too, and then he would have been out of the way of the Grevilles, and would have got some money to make it up.'
'Then is there no chance of the cadetship now?'
'Oh, we should have heard of it long ago if there had been! So I mind the coming out the less; but it's perfectly abominable to have had all this row, and for Papa to be so cut up in this little short time at home.'
'I never saw him more grieved,' said Mr. Merrifield. 'He was hardly more overcome when your mother was at the worst.'
They started, for they had forgotten Uncle John, or they would never have spoken so freely; but he now put down his newspaper, and looked as if he meant to talk.
Susan ventured to say, 'And indeed they had all been so very good before. The pig made them so.'
'A learned pig, I should think,' said her uncle, laughing good- naturedly.
'We were obliged to take care,' said Susan, 'or we got so many fines.'
Christabel, finding that Mr. Merrifield looked at her, helped out Susan by explaining that various small delinquencies were visited with fines, and that the desire to save for the pig had rendered the children very careful.
'Indeed,' she said, 'I was thankful for the incentive, but I am afraid that it was over-worked, and did harm in the end:' and she glanced towards David.
'It is the way with secondary motives,' was the answer.
Here Captain Merrifield came back alone; and his brother was the only person who ventured to say, 'Well?'
'I have sent him to his room,' said the Captain. 'It is a very bad business, though of course he made excuses to himself.'
The Captain then told them Henry's confession. He had been too much hurried by the fear of being caught, to take out his own share of the hoard, and had therefore emptied the whole cupful into his pocket- handkerchief, tied it up, and run off with it, intending to separate what was honestly his own. What that was he did not know, but his boastful habits and want of accuracy had made his memory so careless, that he fancied that a far larger proportion was his than really was, and his purposes were in the strange medley that falls to the lot of all self-deceivers, sometimes fancying he would only take what he had a right to (whatever that might be), sometimes that he would borrow what he wanted, and replace it when the sovereign should be given to him, or that the Grevilles would make it up when they had their month's allowance.
When he came to the farm Mr. Grice was resolved to take nothing less than the whole sum that he had with him. Perhaps this was less for the value of the turkey-cock than for the sake of giving the boys such a lesson as to prevent them from ever molesting his poultry again. At any rate, he was inexorable till the frightened Henry had delivered up every farthing in his possession; and then, convinced that no more was forthcoming, he relented so far as to restore the gun, and promise to make no complaint to either of the fathers.
At first Henry lived on hopes of being able to restore the money before the hoard should be examined, but Colonel Carey went away, and, as might have been expected, left no present to his brother's pupils. Still Henry had hopes of the Grevilles, and even when the loss was discovered, hoped to restore it secretly, and make the whole
