“Yes, he has been somewhat severely punished, I fear, for his disobedience. His leg had been broken. Is it not so, Balls?”
“Yes, sir,” replied the butler, “’e ’as ’ad ’is—”
Balls got no farther, for Diana, who had been struck dumb for the moment by the news, recovered herself.
“His leg broken!” she exclaimed with a look of consternation; “Oh! the poor, poor boy!—the dear boy! and it was me did that too, as well as knocking down the poor policeman!”
There is no saying to what lengths the remorseful child would have gone in the way of self-condemnation if her father had not turned her thoughts from herself by asking what had been done for the boy.
“We sent ’im ’ome, sir, in a cab.”
“I’m afraid that was a little too prompt,” returned the knight thoughtfully. “A broken leg requires careful treatment, I suppose. You should have had him into the house, and sent for a doctor.”
Balls coughed. He was slightly chagrined to find that the violation of his own humane feelings had been needless, and that his attempt to do as he thought his master would have wished was in vain.
“I thought, Sir Richard, that you didn’t like the lower orders to go about the ’ouse more—”
Again little Di interrupted the butler by asking excitedly where the boy’s home was.