"Oh—Leslie," repeated Mrs. Needham.
"You didn't notice which way they went?" asked the minister.
"No, I'm afraid I didn't."
Then Louise came to the rescue. She pointed miserably, yet also with a faint, new fact-facing grimness, toward the lake.
"They haven't taken out the canoe ...!" Alfred Needham was horror struck.
"It's perfectly calm, papa," Louise reminded him dryly.
Then, indeed, they saw the canoe, on the moonlit water. Both Leslie and Hilda were paddling. But they were not exactly paddling toward the shore.
"She knows it's not allowed, out like this at all hours of the night!" cried the minister.
But his wife reassured him in her gentle way. "Alf, I wouldn't worry. Leslie will look out for her."