“Oh! try to blame me. That’s just like a man.”
“I am not blaming you; but I won’t have anything of that kind said of my girl. May held herself too high for that.”
Mrs. Churchill did not speak. She drew in her firm lips. She bore a fresh grudge against May.
“Where are the boys? The boys may know something about this?” now said Mr. Churchill.
The boys were accordingly called into the dining-room. Will went innocently, but Hal with a guilty conscience, which, however, he was prepared to disguise.
“When did you last see your sister yesterday?” asked Mr. Churchill, sternly.
“We had tea with her at five o’clock,” answered Will; “and after that I did not see her.”
“And you, Hal?”
“I saw her a bit later, and she was going out for a walk then,” replied the boy; “and she said she had a headache and would go to bed directly she came in, and would not sit up for you—and that I was to tell you so.”
“And you did not see her again?”