"Because you're getting such friends, you two."
"Oh! Are we?" Johnnie said carelessly. Nevertheless he was flattered by a certain nascent admiration on the part of George, which was then beginning to be noticeable.
A quarter of an hour later, when several guests had gone, Hilda murmured to Edwin:
"I'm not easy about that boy. I'll just run upstairs."
"I shouldn't," said Edwin.
But she did. And the distant sound of knocking, and "George, George," could be heard even down in the hall.
"I can't wake him," said Hilda, back in the drawing-room.
"What do you want to wake him for, foolish girl?" Edwin demanded.
She enjoyed being called "foolish girl," but she was not to be tranquillised.
"Do you think he is in bed?" she questioned, before the whole remaining company, and the dread suspicion was out!