CHAPTER XXII.
THE AMBITIONS OF CHOPS JUNIOR.
'TO—run—away—Miss Lotty?' Chops was gasping. 'Miss Lotty, did ye say—run—away?'
'Oh yes, Chops, I fear I had to say—run away. But you won't tell anybody ever, will you?'
'Never, never, never,' said Chops with curious solemnity.
'Because, you know, Chops, I've always told you everything, and I dare not go away without telling you this. Mary is good, and so is Skeleton; but they would try to argue me out of going, and if he knew he would kill me I think.'
'Miss Lotty, who is 'e?'
'Mr Biffins Lee,' said Lotty quietly, sadly, with her eyes turned towards the stars, but seeing them not.
'Yer father, Miss Lotty?'
'The man who says he is my father,' she said slowly and deliberately. Then, 'Oh Chops, there is a mystery, a strange, strange mystery that I must not even tell you yet. But Crona knows it all.'
'Mustn't—tell—me yet? Ye said "yet," didn't ye, Miss Lotty?'