"I telled her you said I wasn't to go," she murmured, "and she said that was 'cause there was nobody to take me. And she said she'd take me along of the other children, if I'd make haste and get ready. And I run up and got my Sunday hat, and then she fetched down my locket and tied it on for me, and she said it was a pretty locket and she'd never seen it before, and she wanted to know if you gave it me, and I telled her I'd had it always and I wasn't never to lose it."
"What are you talking about, child?" said John, bewildered.
"About my locket. Here 'tis. I haven't lost it, please."
"What did you mean, saying as Mary Alfrick had never seen that locket before? Why, she's tied it round your neck on Sunday, dozens of times."
"I never said—I don't know"—Lily stared and hesitated, herself quite as much at a loss as John. He looked angry, too, and she was frightened. A little over-wrought, tired with the excitement of those two days, the child was ready to burst out crying. She could not answer John, the meaning of his question being entirely beyond her.
"There, there!" he said suddenly. "Never mind, Lily. Mary ought to have known better than talk all that stuff and take you to the fair. That's all. It can't be helped now. Don't cry, my pretty flower; it was no fault of yours, you know. Taking you inside such places as them theatres too! Mrs. Alfrick and all was there, then, as well as Mary?"
Lily nodded. She still looked puzzled, her brain being rather too young to understand John's mistake. But her next words enlightened him, though dimly.
"Polly was coming down to tea with mother and me. She'd got my pinnies to iron. I 'spect I ought to have stopped for her. Mrs. Alfrick said she wasn't coming yet awhile, and mother had gone to Mrs. Nash and left me all alone."
John passed his hand over his face. Slowly, gradually, the knowledge was dawning on him that he had made a tremendous mistake. He tried hard not to frown, not to frighten Lily by any hard word or rough tone. He spoke after a minute's pause, asking the question on which his life's happiness now seemed to depend, while his heart beat so heavily that the words could hardly make their way.
"Who was it as took you to Carsham, Lily?"