"Where did you find it?" he went on.
"In the river. The river Lea. Close by the water steps in Mistress Sheppard's garden. And when? Last night, while you were in the King's Arms, talking to those men. The men," she went on in steady tones, though he was biting his lip, and his pale face flushed painfully, "who were there; instead of going straight home, as you ought to have done—"
"Ought!" angrily interrupted he; "and who made you spy over me?"
"I wasn't spying. I was only—taking a peep, just a little peep at—at the boat."
"Boat?"
"The Queen Ruth," Lawrence dear.
"And since you set such store by honour bright and 'oughts,' and all that sort of thing all at once, what business had you to be abroad all in the dark when your father had bidden you go indoors?"
She coloured a little. "I did go in," she answered after a moment's silence. "Only—only—"
"Only you came out again, that's all," he said with a low mocking laugh. "Ruth, Ruth! what possessed you to do such a thing?"
Changed indeed.