Miss Campbell hesitated. She never liked to make accusations on circumstantial evidence, but it certainly looked very much as if Clarence Paxton had done the deed, out of spite.
Edward hesitated and Billie replied for him.
“The engineer is busy at this moment, Cousin Helen,” she said, “but I will tell you that if it wasn’t the person who shall be nameless, he got a good beating anyhow for some one else’s sins the next day.”
“Is it possible?” exclaimed the little lady with great concern. “Dear, dear. Who beat him?”
“The other one.”
“It all sounds very mysterious,” laughed Timothy, “like the letter at the trial of the Knave of Hearts:
“‘I gave her one; they gave him two,
You gave us three or more.
They all returned from him to you,
Though they were mine before.’”
“What are these Paxton people like?” asked Genevieve Martin.
“They are English and peculiar,” answered Nancy. “Two orphans and one almost-orphan, and their grandmother. The two orphans are very nice and the almost-orphan is—well, rather disagreeable. The grandmother beats them when she is angry——”
“Oh, Nancy,” exclaimed Elinor.