"Good heavens! Do you really think she'll feel like that?" he asked in astonishment.
"I'm certain."
"But I can't see why—she might have had reason had I been the aggressor."
"If you had hurt her she would not feel half so bad. You would be a hopeless booby if you could not understand that."
"Really, now, if I thought she would take it that way, it would make all the difference in the world. But had she desired to despatch me, half that energy of insult would do," he said, drawing up, while hardness crept into his voice, but it softened again as he concluded—
"I wouldn't like her to be upset about it, though, if she didn't quite mean it."
"Well, you can be sure that in regard to you she was very far from meaning it, and that she will be dreadfully upset about it; so think of what I've said, and come and see me in the morning."
Now that he had grown calm, he was shivering with the cold, so I bade him run home.
On returning to the house I found Andrew the solitary watcher of his charge, who, covered by an old cloak, was snoring on the kitchen sofa.
"Dear me, where are they all?"