Chapter Twenty Six.
The Vicar stopped and chatted, taking his seat upon the stool Tom had I before offered, and watched the process of making the speculum for some time before leaving, and then, shaking hands with Tom, he said, smiling—
“Shows how careful one ought to be in suspecting people, Tom Blount. We are none of us perfect. Good-bye.”
“That’s a hint for us, Tom,” said Uncle Richard, as soon as they were alone. “Perhaps you are wrong about Master Pete Warboys too.”
Tom thought about the pears thrown at Pete by his cousin, and shook his head.
“Pete wouldn’t have been peeping over the wall, uncle, if he had not meant mischief.”
“Perhaps not, Tom; but he may have meant mischief to you, and not to my pears.”
Tom laughed, and they soon after went in to dinner.