"That's my own fault, isn't it, Edric? And that's just why it's harder to bear. Virtue is its own reward, they say, and so is wickedness. Here he comes! 'I've waited long for you, my man; Oh, welcome safe to land,'" he sang, gently, as Harold came in, holding mother's hand and looking rather bewildered.
"Now, young man," said father, "give an account of yourself. What do you mean by disobeying me and going out of the house when you promised not, and harrowing the hearts of your brothers and sister and all your relations?"
"Please, uncle, I didn't go out of the house," said Harold, earnestly.
CHAPTER X.
How the Stranger Helped.
"Curiouser and curiouser," quoted Jack, from Alice in Wonderland; but we were all too astonished to laugh at his droll face. "I specs he walked in his sleep."