Page:Arthur Stringer-The Loom of Destiny.djvu/137

The Honour of Hummerley "Don't, don't, Reginald!" he heard her cry, "for my sake, for your own, don't tempt me."

Then the Ogre, the great, tall, white-toothed Ogre, said something about how much he loved her.

"No, no!" his mamma answered, "I shall not,—I must—Oh, God! what shall I do!"

That was all he listened to. He crept up to bed. He knew he had been a sneak for listening to other people talking. Hal would never have done that! But he had not meant to. He said to himself over and over again that he had not meant to. Yet now he knew it all. His mamma did n't love him because she loved the Ogre. That was it, she loved the Ogre. Then his mamma was wicked. And he had promised his papa that he would take care of her! What would he say when he came home and found out? What would he say?

In his misery he got up and knelt by his bed, and said every prayer he knew. After his solitary little childish heart had argued it 125