It caused him to make his way to Squires next morning, on the pretext of an ailing servant, in the vague hope of seeing Rose Aviolet and avoiding the problem of direct inquiry such as he feared that his sister meditated.
His first sight of Lady Aviolet put the suspicion in his mind beyond question at once.
“I’m so glad to see you. My naughty little grandson seems to have taken advantage of Miss Lucian’s kindness to him yesterday. He picked up a most charming little box, and I’m sorry to say, brought it home with him. One of the housemaids found it under his little pillow, when she made his bed, and took it to my maid, who of course told me.”
“Children are like magpies—they pick things up and hide them.”
“Of course he knew nothing of its value, but it does seem very odd that a child of that age shouldn’t have been better taught. However, I believe he told the truth when his mother taxed him with it, which I was most thankful for. I’m bound to say that she generally gets the truth out of him eventually, though why he couldn’t have been brought up to speak it in the first place, as a matter of course, I can’t imagine. However, Rose tells me he owned at once that he took the little box, meaning to play with it at home, and then take it back. I’m so sorry, Dr. Lucian.”
The doctor laughed.
“Not at all. It was very natural. If I may take the thing away with me, no one will think any more about it.”
“Oh, but that wouldn’t do at all,” said Lady Aviolet, unsmiling. “I don’t mean to punish him, as he spoke the truth, but he must certainly be made to remember that he has done a very wrong thing. He must give you back the box himself, and say that he is sorry.”
The doctor, profoundly averse as he felt himself to be to the proposed scene of restitution, knew that it would be useless to protest against it.
He waited, unresignedly, while Lady Aviolet rang the bell and asked for Mrs. Aviolet and Master Cecil.