Mab herself ran back to her house, and
even snarled at the attempt to detach her from it. 'You are a faithful
little beast,' he said, 'and your master will soon be here to set all
straight, so I will leave you for the present;' and therewith he signed
farewell, and breathed more freely as he gained the outer air.

'I'll tell you what, Henry,' he said, as they drove out of the
courtyard, 'we'll bring out Bramshaw to watch the case. He will see
through this horrible mystery, and throw the suspicion in the right
quarter, whatever that may be, depend upon it.'

Henry had thrown himself back in the carriage with averted face, and
only answered by a groan.

'Come, don't be so downcast,' said Dr. May; 'it is a frightful affair,
no doubt, and Leonard has chosen a most unlucky moment for this
escapade; but he will have a thorough warning against frolics.'

'Frolics indeed!' said Henry, bitterly.

'Well, I'll be bound that's all he has attempted, and it has got him
into a horrid scrape; and ten to one but the police have got the real
ruffians in their hands by this time.'

'I have no hope,' said Henry.

'More shame for you not to feel a certain confidence that He who sees
all will show the right.'

'If!' said Henry, breaking off with a sound and look of such intense
misery as almost to stagger the Doctor himself, by reminding him of
Leonard's violent temper, and the cause Henry had to remember his
promptness of hand; but that Ethel's pupil, Aubrey's friend, the boy of
ingenuous face, could under any provocation strike helpless old age,
or, having struck, could abscond without calling aid, actuated by
terror, not by pity or repentance, was more than Dr. May could believe,
and after brief musing, he broke out in indignant refutation.

'I should have thought so. I wish I still could believe so' sighed
Henry; 'but--' and there they lapsed into silence, till, as they came
near the town, Dr. May offered to set him down at Bankside.

'No! no, thank you,' he cried in entreaty. 'I cannot see her--Ave.'

'Then come home with me. You shall see no one, and you will look up
when you are not faint and fasting. You young men don't stand up
against these things like us old stagers.'

As the carriage stopped, several anxious faces were seen on the watch,
but the Doctor signed them back till he had deposited Henry in his
study, and then came among them.

Gertrude was the first to speak. 'O, papa, papa, what is it! Mrs.
Pug