Chapter Eighteen.
The speculum that was never to reflect the bright face of the moon was easily moved now, and Tom stooped down and picked up one by one the three triangular pieces, and laid them upon the bench, to find then that a good-sized elliptical piece, something in shape like a fresh-water mussel-shell, yet remained upon the stones. This he raised, and found that it fitted in at the edge beneath.
There was nothing to be gained in what he did, but Tom stood there carefully fitting the fractures together, and spending a great deal of time over the task, while the mirror reflected his sorrowful face as he bent over it. And as he ran his fingers along the three lines of union, the boy’s thoughts went back to the scene that evening at Mornington Crescent, when the big china vase was dragged down, to break to shivers in the hall.
“And Sam said I broke that, just as David says I broke this, and all to escape blame. I don’t want to tell uncle that David broke it, but I must; I’m not going to take the blame myself, for it would be cowardly as well as lying. But it is so hard. He will be so angry.”
So Tom communed as he pieced the fragments of the mirror together, ending by getting the sponge, rinsing it well, and carefully removing a few smears and finger-marks, before taking a clean cloth and wiping it quite dry.
“That’s no good,” he said bitterly. “I’m only doing it so as to keep from going and telling uncle, and I must tell him—I must tell him, and the sooner the better.”
But still he did not stir. He picked up the blanket, and folded that up neatly, to lay it beside the speculum, and then looked round for something else to do.
This he found in the window, which he opened and shut two or three times over, before drawing away from it, with a sigh, and going to the door to look across at the house, where his uncle would be writing.
“I ought to go and tell him, but it is so hard to do. Suppose he thinks it is my work—suppose David goes and accuses me of having broken it to escape himself.”
Tom stood aghast at the idea, and was for rushing across at once, but something seemed to hold him back, and a good half-hour passed before he fully strung himself up to go.