“How came that?”
“A drunken man threw it at me.”
“What was his name?”
“I do not know.”
“That is well for him.” Then, after a short pause, he asked further, “And your unshod feet?”
“Oh! I gave my shoes to Jamie.”
Coppinger turned sharply round on the boy. “Take off those shoes instantly and give them back to your sister.”
“No—indeed, no,” said Judith. “He is running and will cut his poor feet—and I, through your kindness, am riding.”
Coppinger did not insist. He asked: “But how comes the boy to be without clothes?”
“Because I rescued him, as he was, from the Asylum.”