“Mother bade me shut it, as I passed.”
“O dear!” said Agnes, in a tone of disappointment; “then she did not mean us to hear what they were talking about.”
“What was it? Anything about the Crofton boys? Anything about Phil?”
“I cannot tell you a word about it. Mamma did not know I heard them. How plain anyone can hear what they say in that parlour, Hugh, when the door is open! What do you think I heard mamma tell Mrs Bicknor, last week, when I was jumping Harry off the third stair?”
“Never mind that. Tell me what they are talking about now. Do, Agnes.”
Agnes shook her head.
“Now do, dear.”
It was hard for Agnes to refuse Hugh anything, at any time; more still when he called her “dear,” which he seldom did; and most of all when he put his arm round her neck, as he did now. But she answered—
“I should like to tell you every word; but I cannot now. Mamma has made you shut the door. She does not wish you to hear it.”
“Me! Then will you tell Jane?”