"What did you say, Nesta?" asked Mr. Chase again, in a tone that made the twins' hearts stand still.
He looked angry, surprised, and very commanding. But how were they to repeat what they had been saying? Nesta remembered they had been warned not to speak of Aunt Dorothy before him. Eustace felt it would be mean and ungenerous to get Herbert into trouble behind his back. But Peter had no such scruples. Dropping his head into his arms on the table, he broke out sobbingly,—
"Herbert says it was me drowned Aunt Dorothy."
"What!" exclaimed Mr. Chase incredulously; "he surely never said such a thing? Explain this to me, Eustace, at once."
His tone was so severe that the boy literally shook. He had never seen any one really angry in his life before.
"He didn't say quite that," Eustace said with difficulty; "he only meant it was because of Peter."
"Kindly give me his exact words," Mr. Chase said, still in that awful voice.
Eustace closed his thin lips tight, with an expression that meant wild horses would not drag it from him. His grandfather scanned his face closely, then turned to Nesta.
"As Eustace seems to have lost his tongue, I must ask you to tell me what Herbert said in exactly his own words."
Nesta glanced furtively at her twin, but she was angry with Herbert and saw no reason why he should be protected.