“But she will make me tell her how I did it.”
“Well?”
“I daren’t tell her that. I daren’t even tell you.”
“What am I to think, Paulie?”
“Anything you like. You are my own sister, and you must not betray me. But she must never know. Can’t you think of something to get me out of this? Oh, dear! what is to be done?”
Verena shook her head.
“I don’t know what is to be done,” she said, “if you haven’t the courage to speak the truth. You have probably got into some scrape.”
“Oh! I——”
“I am sure you have, Paulie; and the sooner you tell the better. The longer you conceal whatever it is, the worse matters will grow.”
Pauline’s face grew crimson.