"Did she sit up reading a novel?" Lulu inquired.
"Yes," was the brief reply.
"Then, what father said was right. I am as much to blame as she is. It is all owing to me that Celia ever got into the habit of reading those light novels at all. I induced her to read them in the first place. It was I who lent her 'Lady Isabella's Treachery,' you know, and—"
"I thought you told me you lent 'Lady Isabella's Treachery' to Joy!" Sir Jasper interrupted, sternly.
"No—to Celia."
"You certainly gave me to understand it was Joy to whom you had lent the book," Sir Jasper persisted.
Lulu stared at him in puzzled silence for a few minutes; then she shook her head.
"No, you have made a mistake, Sir Jasper," she said, decidedly. "Now I come to think of it, I don't know that I mentioned Celia by name. You said that I had lent the book to 'that silly little niece of yours,' and of course I thought you meant Celia."
"Nevertheless it was Joy who was in my mind," the old man almost groaned.
"Joy would not have read 'Lady Isabella's Treachery.' She thought it very wrong of me to lend it to Celia; she did not like her reading it a bit—she was quite unhappy about it—and I know now she was right. I've been very unhappy about it, too, since; and this morning when I heard how the fire had broken out I told father how Celia and I used to sit up reading when she was staying with me, and he was so angry, and said I was greatly to blame. And that's why I've come here to tell you that I was 'at the root of the mischief,' as father said, and that I'm a very wicked, deceitful girl." Here Lulu drew a lace-edged handkerchief from her pocket, and wiped away two scalding tears which were running down her dusty cheeks. "If I had never lent Celia 'Lady Isabella's Treachery' she would never have liked novels of that sort, and she wouldn't have sat up reading, and the east wing wouldn't have been burnt down," she concluded, dolefully.