h has been here to ask, and Ethel won't let me hear, though Tom and
Aubrey know.'

'I took refuge in your order to believe nothing till you came,' said
Ethel, with hands tightly clasped together.

'It is true, then?' asked Tom.

'True that it looks as bad as bad can be,' said the Doctor, sighing
heavily, and proceeding to state the aspect of the case.

'It is a trick--a plot,' cried Aubrey passionately; 'I know it is! He
always said he would run away if they tried to teach him dishonesty;
and now they have done this and driven him away, and laid the blame on
him. Ethel, why don't you say you are sure of it?'

'Leonard would be changed indeed if this were so,' said Ethel,
trembling as she stood, and hardly able to speak articulately.

Aubrey broke out with a furious 'If,' very different from Henry Ward's.

'It would not be the Leonard we knew at Coombe,' said Ethel. 'He might
be blind with rage, but he would never be cowardly. No. Unless he own
it, nothing shall ever make me believe it.'

'Own it! For shame, Ethel,' cried Aubrey. And even the Doctor
exclaimed, 'You are as bad as poor Henry himself, who has not got soul
enough to be capable of trusting his brother.'

'I do trust,' said Ethel, looking up. 'I shall trust his own word,'
and she sat down without speaking, and knitted fast, but her needles
clattered.

'And how about that poor girl at Bankside?' said the Doctor.

'I went down there,' said Tom, 'just to caution the servants against
bringing in stories. She found out I was there, and I had to go in and
make the best of it.'

'And what sort of a best?' said the Doctor.

'Why, she knew he used to get out in the morning to bathe, and was
persuaded he had been drowned; so I told her I knew he was alive and
well, and she would hear all about it when you came back. I brought
the youngest child away with me, and Gertrude has got her up-stairs;
the other would not come. Poor thing! Mary says she is very good and
patient; and I must say she was wonderfully reasonable when I talked to
her.'

'Thank you, Tom,' said his father with warmth, 'it was very kind of
you. I wonder if Ave knew anything of this runaway business; it might
be the saving of him!'

'I did,' said Aubrey eagerly; 'at least, I know he said he would not
stay if they wanted to put him up to their dishonest tricks; and he
talked of that very window!'

'Yes, you imprudent fellow; and you were telling Mrs. Pugh so, if I
hadn't stop