"Now, now!" cried Edith, "how do you come to know anything about it? What business have small boys like you, spying on the actions of their elders, when they should be safely tucked up, and asleep in their little beds?"
"I wasn't spying; I was asleep. I have no restless conscience to keep me prowling about at unholy hours."
"How do you come to know, then?"
"A little bird told me."
"I'll twist your little bird's neck! Who was it, sir? I command you."
"How she queens it already! Don't excite yourself, you small Amazon.
It was the officer of the deck."
"The officer of the deck might be much better employed; and you may tell him so, with my compliments."
"I will; but you don't deny it—you were there!"
"I never deny my actions," she says with royal disdain; "yes, I was there."
"With Sir Victor—alone?"