Page:Keeping the Peace.pdf/35

 Edward, had, he would certainly catch it when his mother came home.

His mother was always boasting about those urns, and showing them off to visitors. She could not possibly have known that it had been cracked, or there would have been an uproar. Edward was so filled with dubiety and vague forebodings that he could by no means return to a perusal of the pictures in the history.

He set up a watch at one of the front windows, and when toward dark the family surrey hove in view with one dear sister on the front seat and the other dear sister on the back seat alongside Dear Mother, he became frightened and ran back into the library.

Then he became more frightened. If Dear Mother found him in the same room with the broken urn she would at once suspect him of having broken it. So he ran out into the hall. Then it occurred to him that if he were not found in the same room with the broken urn the fact would be remembered against him when at length the break was discovered.

A clear conscience is supposed to transcend all evil. Edward's conscience was clear as a bell, but he had had clear consciences before now and they had availed him nothing.

He stood irresolute, a tiny figure in the dark old