"But where have you been since?" asked Mrs. Willis.
"I am sorry to say we have been made the victims of a most malicious trick," replied Mrs. Lee. "There were no carriages at the station, and I thought I could find your house easily enough. Meeting a party of school-girls, I asked them the way, that I might be sure, and was told by one of them that your house had been burned and that you had moved into a house which she pointed out on the hill-side. If I had known how far it was I should have gone to the hotel, where, of course, I should have been set right."
"But as it was, Willie and I toiled all the way up the steep rough road to find ourselves at an empty, deserted and half-ruined house. Poor Willie broke down entirely, and I felt very much like doing the same, for we had travelled all night and were tired out. I hardly know what we should have done but for a good-natured teamster, who stopped to water his horses at the trough by the gate. I made some inquiries of him, and he not only set me right, but insisted on bringing me back to the village. Poor Willie is quite discouraged at his first experience in a Christian land, and wants to go back to China."
"I do not wonder!" said Mrs. Willis.
"I did not believe there was a girl in the village who would do such a wicked thing. Who do you suppose it could have been, Mary?"
Mary, in her corner of the sofa, murmured something, she hardly knew what. She was wishing that she were in China, or anywhere else out of the sight of her mother and aunt. Oh, if she had only gone with Helen! If she had only been brave enough to defy Jane, and set her aunt right! But there was no use in wishing.
"She was a short and rather dark girl, with a great deal of curling black hair, and bold black eyes," said Mrs. Lee. "There were several others with her, but I did not notice them so as to be able to know them again."
"It must have been Jane Marvin, I am sure," said Mrs. Willis.
She turned to Mary as she spoke, and observed her confusion. Could it be that her daughter had been engaged in the trick? At that moment her attention was diverted by poor Willie, who had been trying in vain to eat, and who now, overcome by fatigue and pain, fainted away in his chair. Mrs. Willis saw him carried up-stairs and made as comfortable as he could be, and then returned to the parlor, where Mary was curled up in the corner of the sofa, crying as if her heart would break.
"Now, Mary, I want to know all that you can tell me about this matter!" said Mrs. Willis, seating herself by Mary. "Tell me the whole truth."