“Oh, Freddy, is that you?” exclaimed Meg. “How quick you have been! Kitty might just as well have waited for you! Not that I believed a word of that story, for I hope I am not such a dummy! She has gone off to Arnside, but she means to return tomorrow.”
“Old gentleman taken ill, or something?” enquired Freddy, seating himself at the table, and selecting an apple from the dish of fruit in the middle of it.
“No, I don’t think that was it. She had a most peculiar letter from Miss Fishguard yesterday, all about Henry VIII, and she said it was plain to her that something must be amiss at Arnside.”
“All about Henry VIII?” repeated Freddy incredulously. “What’s he doing at Arnside? Well, what I mean is, can’t be doing anything! Fellow’s been dead for centuries. Good thing, if he’s the one I’m thinking of.”
“Well, that is what we couldn’t discover, for the stupid creature wrote so wildly neither of us could read her letter. There was something about a cockatrice, and a girl called Katherine, whom Kitty thinks must be a new servant, and then, a little farther down the page, something about treason. There was no understanding it at all!”
“Plain as a pikestaff!” said Freddy, delicately peeling his apple. “Touched in her upper works. Thought as much, when I was down there.”
“Yes, but that is not all, Freddy. First, Kitty said she should ask you to take her home, to discover what was the matter. And then, that very same morning, she said she would not wait for you, but would ask Dolph to take her instead! I assure you, I tried to dissuade her, but she wouldn’t listen to me, and she has gone with Dolph!”
Mr. Standen, having peeled his apple, now quartered it. “Shouldn’t have done that,” he said, shaking his head. “Much better have waited for me! No use taking Dolph: he’s touched in his upper works too. Won’t know what to do, if that Fish turns out to be violent.” He ate one of the quarters, and added reflectively: “Come to think of it, shouldn’t know what to do myself. Still, might make a push to do something, which he won’t.”
“Upon my word, Freddy, you take it very coolly!” cried Meg. “Here’s Kitty, running off in this mysterious way with Dolph, and you seem not to care a button!”
“Well, I don’t,” replied Freddy. “She won’t come to any harm with Dolph.”