"You won't tell anybody you saw it there?"
"Not a soul."
"You promise?"
"Solemnly."
"You won't say a single word about it, if I tell you something?"
"Not a syllable."
"Well—then—it's because I don't want Daddy to see it, for fear——"
"—it would grieve him?" I suggested as the end of his broken sentence. And I held my breath in the sudden hope that I might be right.
"For fear he tears it up!" the boy said harshly. "He did that once before, and this is the last I've got."
I made no comment, and there were no further confidences from Ronnie. So many things I wanted to know and could not ask! I could only hold my peace and Ronnie's hot hand, until it pinched mine in sudden warning, as the whole house lept under a springy step upon the stairs.