‘It’s a blooming shame, Joe,’ repeated Ralph.
Ronald took the lad’s hand kindly in his own. ‘I believe what you say, Joe, and if you tell the truth it will all come right,’ he said.
But Vivian stood silent, utterly tongue-tied. It was true that he had not been found out; but already his punishment was heavy, for it was almost more than he could bear to have to stand by and see an innocent lad led off to prison for his fault.
‘What a nice finish up to the holidays!’ said Ralph as they walked slowly homewards. ‘The house broken into, and every one as cross as two sticks, and Isobel ill, and now Joe taken up. It is enough to give a fellow the blues. It is a good thing that there is Mrs Seton-Kinaird’s party to look forward to.’
‘Do you think that we will go,’ said Ronald gravely, ‘now that Isobel is so ill? I was just wondering if I oughtn’t to write and tell mother that we are going home. I’m sure Aunt Dora would be glad to have fewer of us in the house.’
‘Oh, don’t do that till after the party,’ said Ralph, who did not like the idea of being left alone with only little Claude for company. ‘You are going home on Wednesday anyhow, and I expect Isobel will be a lot better to-morrow. It isn’t as if it were anything infectious.’
But when they reached the house they were met by news that put all thoughts of the party out of their minds. The door was opened by Mary, and her eyes were as red and swollen as Joe’s had been, but from a very different cause.
‘You have to go up the back stairs,’ she said in a husky whisper, ‘and be as quiet as you possibly can. Poor little Miss Isobel is dreadfully ill, and they say that it all depends upon her being kept quiet; and she does get so excited at the least little bit of a sound.’
‘Have they sent for Dr Robson again?’ asked Ralph, for they could hear the doctor’s voice as he stood talking to Mr Osbourne in the corridor just outside Isobel’s room.