‘Yes, Aunt Mary is very anxious. Oh, I would have done anything that you had not vexed them now and killed this poor dear pretty thing!’ said Constance, stroking down the glossy feathers of the still warm victim, and laying them against her cheek, almost tearfully.
‘Well, you are not going to tell them. Perhaps
they won’t miss it. I would not have done it if Stanhope had not been such a beast,’ said Herbert.
‘I shall not tell them, of course,’ said Constance; ‘but, if I were you, I should not be happy till they knew.’
‘Oh, that’s only girl’s way! I can’t have the old Stick upset now, for I’m in horrid want of tin.’
‘Oh, Bertie, was it true then?’
‘What, you don’t mean that they have heard?’
‘That you were out at those Colbeam races!’
‘To be sure I was, with Stanhope and Hailes and a lot more. We all went except the little kids and Sisson, who is in regular training for as great a muff as the governor there. Who told him?’
‘Mr. Hailes, who is very much concerned about his grandson.’