“How did you guess?” said Nora vehemently, uncovering her face—“I never said a word to you!”
Connie gave a tremulous laugh.
“Do you think I couldn’t see that you were all dreadfully unhappy about something? I—I made Alice tell me—”
“Alice is a sieve!” cried Nora. “I knew, father, we could never trust her.”
“And then”—Connie went on—“I—I did an awful thing. I’d better tell you. I came and looked at Nora’s papers—in the schoolroom drawer. I saw that.” She pointed penitentially to a sheet of figures lying on the study table.
Both Nora and her uncle looked up in amazement, staring at her.
“It was at night,” she said hurriedly—“last night. Oh, I put it all back!”—she turned, pleading, to Nora—“just as I found it. You shouldn’t be angry with me—you shouldn’t indeed!”
Then her own voice began to shake. She came and laid her hand on her uncle’s shoulder.
“Dear Uncle Ewen—you know, I had that extra money! What did I want with it? Just think—if it had been mamma! Wouldn’t you have let her help? You know you would! You couldn’t have been so unkind. Well then, I knew it would be no good, if I came and asked you—you wouldn’t have let me. So I—well, I just did it!”
Ewen Hooper rose from his table in great distress of mind.