At the school-house door Tim halted suddenly.
"I'm going back, Mark," he whispered, "just for a minute. Weston will think I'm a fraud and I want to tell him something. Now that the others have left I may have a chance. Confound these kind-hearted women that overrun the house! Why, a fellow couldn't say a word without a dozen ears to hear it."
"I'll go back with you," said I.
We had fallen a few steps behind the others, but somehow they divined our purpose and stopped, too.
"You needn't," said Tim. "I'll only be a minute."
"But I've something to tell you—a secret—and Mary——"
He was gone.
"I'll be back in a minute," he called. "Go on home."
He was lost in the darkness, and I started after him.
"Ain't you comin'?" cried Nanny Pulsifer.