But father heard, and such a look of pain came into his face as might have made anybody's heart ache. I never can bear to think of his look that moment.
"No—no!" says he. "Too late for that! I'll have no more questioning of Kitty. I never would have believed that the word of a child of mine mightn't be depended on! Tell me yourself, Mary, and quick, for I must be off. Where does the watch come from?"
"From Walter," she said sorrowfully. "He has been the tempter."
"Whose tempter?"
Mary spoke clear and firm, as if she wouldn't mince matters, either for Walter's sake or for mine.
"Walter was the tempter," she said; "and Kitty has been wrong to give in to him. Walter was in difficulties, and he got the watch from Kitty to raise money on—borrowed it, he says! But—"
Father stood like one struck by a bolt, his head hanging down.
"And Kitty gave the watch to Russell. Our Kitty!" says he, in a dazed way. "Kitty! And she making believe she didn't know aught of where it was! Telling a pack of miserable lies! Our Kitty! I wouldn't have believed it!" says he.
"I blame Walter most," said Mary. "He is the oldest. If he were not so weak!"
Strange to say, even in that moment, it angered me to hear her speak so of him. She might call me weak, if she liked; but not Walter.