"Oh yes, you do! You made out to me—as you did to Cole, too—that all those coins you showed me belong to you, and they don't—they belong to your father."
"Well, that's the same thing," declared Edgar, determined to put a bold face on the matter.
"How can it be the same thing? You know it isn't."
"It is. Everything of father's will be mine someday."
"Someday's not now. You deceived me, and you deceived Cole; but I've found you out, and he hasn't."
"Oh, you needn't think I'm going to tell him, for I'm not! Father says you had no right to show me the coins when Uncle John wasn't there. I wouldn't have looked at them if I'd known that. The stamps aren't yours, either. I was foolish to believe they were."
"Look here, Roger, don't you tell Uncle Martin I took that Calais Noble to school; do you hear?"
"Why not?"
"Because he might mention it to father, and there'd be a fuss. You don't want to make mischief, I'm sure. I've done no harm, and I'll put the Noble back in its place, in the cabinet, immediately I get home, and I won't touch any of the coins again without father's permission. Promise you won't tell Uncle Martin."
"Well, I won't. It's nothing to do with me. But why can't you be straight, Edgar? Why did you want to pretend the coins and the stamps were yours? Just to show off, I suppose. It was as bad as telling a lie, you know. That's what I can't understand about you—why you won't keep to the truth—" and Roger regarded his companion with a very puzzled expression in his honest, grey eyes.