d, so are the maids; the foolish girls seem to have lost their
heads entirely."

Long before she had finished speaking, Paul had remembered that he had
left the window and the shutters open, and that he must have left
footmarks where he trod. He felt thoroughly despicable as he lay there,
listening to his mother's story, knowing that he could explain all, and so
save every one much alarm and trouble. "I should not have told Stella and
Michael," she went on, "lest they should be nervous another time, but they
had heard it all from the maids before I could prevent it."

But Paul did not hear what she was saying; he had suddenly thought of his
clothes, those he wore last night, and his tell-tale stockings. If his
mother noticed them now, the whole affair would be shown up. And at that
moment Mrs. Anketell did catch sight of the stockings, lying inside out
and rolled up anyhow, on the floor, and instinctively she picked one up
and began to straighten it, while Paul watched her actions with feelings
such as an animal must suffer when caught in a trap.

"Why, Paul," she exclaimed, as she thrust her hand into the foot of it,
"your stockings are quite wet, and--oh, look, my dear child, what have you
done to them?" She held up the foot on her hand for him to see.
The bottom of it was riddled with holes!

He had never thought of their wearing out like that, and he leaned up,
gazing at the stocking in sheer astonishment. His mother mistook the look
on his face for another kind of surprise. "How can they have got into
such a state? They were quite sound when I bandaged your ankle.
Were they sound when you took them off last night?"

"They were all right when I came to bed," stammered Paul.

"But they have thorns and bits of grass stuck in them," she cried,
examining them closely. "Some one must have walked about in them on
grass, and wet grass too." She put down the stocking, and picked up the
knickerbockers which were lying on a chair. "My dear child, these are all
muddy too!" And as she held them up Paul saw on them the clear marks of
his fall, and his attempts to scale the window.

"Can't you tell me anything about it, dear?" she asked, puzzled and
amazed; "can't you give me any explanation?"

"No," said Paul faintly. And his mother, never for a moment suspecting
that he could wilfully deceive her, or that such a thing as had really
happened could be possible, began to look elsewhere for the explanation.

"