It seemed useless to seek it, but he did so, searching the schoolroom and the dining-room where he had had his tea, in vain.
"I must have lost it on my way home," he groaned, "but I dare not tell father, he would be so dreadfully angry with me. Perhaps I dropped it in the schoolroom but, no, I'm sure I didn't, for I showed it to Cole in the playground, and I didn't take it out of my pocket after that."
Edgar, as may easily be imagined, spent the remainder of the evening in a most miserable frame of mind; and he subsequently passed a restless night, disturbed by distressing dreams. He dared not mention his loss to anyone, and kept it a secret to himself, though he knew full well that he ought to tell his father.
"He set such store on the Calais Noble," he thought unhappily. "I've often heard him say what difficulty he had to get it, and, oh, I can't tell him, I can't! But I do wonder what will happen when he finds it's gone. He mayn't find it out for a long, long time, but sooner or later he will." Conscience prompted him to speak out and confess the truth to his father; but cowardice bade him hold his tongue, and he was so little in the habit of facing any unpleasantness that he allowed cowardice to prevail.
[CHAPTER XIV]
MR. MARSH DISCOVERS HIS LOSS
"EDGAR, dear, your father wants you," said Mrs. Marsh, meeting her son at the front door one afternoon on his return from school a few days after he had lost the Calais Noble. "He's in the study, and he's so put out because he's missed some coin or other. He says you showed his coins to Roger, and he's displeased at that—not that he minds Roger having seen the coins, but because you had no right to meddle with his keys as you must have done. I tell him he should not leave his keys where everyone can get at them; but, all the same, you ought not to have touched them, my dear. You'd better go to him at once."
Edgar obeyed in fear and trembling. He found his father seated before the cabinet which held his coins, looking disturbed and perplexed.
"You want me, father?" the little boy said, in a faltering tone.
"Yes. Have you been meddling with my coins?" Mr. Marsh asked sharply.