She broke off, perceiving that Captain Tobias was looking with sudden earnestness at Captain Cai, and that Captain Cai was somewhat awkwardly evading the look.
"Be a man, Caius!" Tobias exhorted his friend.
"It's—it's this way, ma'am," said Captain Cai sheepishly, after a long pause, diving in his pocket. "We wasn't exactly bound to fetch the—the musical box—which, Lord forgive me! I'd forgot for the moment—but to return this. How it came to find its way to my pocket I don't know."
"And I don't know, either," mused Mrs Bosenna, as Dinah helped her to undress that night. (This undressing was, in fact, but a well-worn excuse for mistress and maid to chat and—due difference of position observed—exchange confidences before bedtime). "Captain Hocken is simple-minded, as any one can tell; but not absent-minded by nature. At least, I hope not. I hate absent-minded men."
She glanced at her glass, and turned about sharply.
"Dinah, you designing woman! I believe you slipped that box into his pocket? Yes, when you pretended that his coat wanted brushing,—I saw you!"
CHAPTER VIII.
'BIAS APPROVES.
As they departed and went their way down the coombe, a constrained silence fell between the two friends. Nor did either break it until they came again in sight of the railway station.
"I don't altogether like the air in this valley," announced 'Bias.