Page:The Other House (London, William Heinemann, 1896), Volume 2.djvu/115

Rh Mrs. Beever was silent a moment. "I wish to heaven she'd leave Effie alone!"

"Aren't there different ways of looking at that?" Paul indulgently asked.

"Plenty, no doubt—and only one decent one." The grossness of the girl's error seemed to loom larger. "I'm ashamed of her!" she declared.

"Well, I'm not!" Paul quietly returned.

"Oh, you—of course you excuse her!" In the agitation that he had produced Mrs. Beever bounced across an interval that brought her into view of an object from which, as she stopped short at the sight of it, her emotion drew fresh sustenance. "Why, there's the boat!"

"Mr. Vidal has brought it back," said Paul.

She faced round in surprise. "You've seen him?"

"No, but Jean told me."

The lady of Eastmead stared. "She has seen him? Then where on earth is he?"

"He's staying at Bounds," said Paul.

His mother's wonderment deepened. "He has got there already?"

Paul smoked a little: then he explained. "It's