Do you know if any of you walk in your sleep?" she asked, with a sudden
thought.

"I never saw the others do it," said Paul quickly, delighted at the
possibility of a new way out of his dilemma, "and of course I shouldn't
know if I did myself, should I?"

"Perhaps not, unless something happened to wake you. But don't worry, or
frighten yourself. Of course no one is to blame if it is a case of
sleep-walking,--only it will be a great anxiety for the future.
You had better get up now and dress. I will take these things down; they
may help to explain what is such a puzzle to us all, and to relieve their
minds."

As soon as his mother had gone, Paul quickly began to bestir himself; he
was not particularly anxious to face people and all the questions which
would probably be levelled at him, but never could he lie still and think
of the deception he had practised on his mother. When he came to move,
the stiffness and pain in his scraped knees almost made him cry out, and
when he put his feet on the floor, he quickly sat back on the bed again,
for the bottoms of his feet were full of tiny prickles, and the pain, when
he pressed on them, was almost unbearable.

CHAPTER X.

RUMOUR AND APPREHENSION.

In the excitement and talk which the events of the night called forth,
Paul's boots escaped notice, and Paul himself many times wished he could
have done the same. But he was the most interesting person in the house
just then, and was questioned, cross-questioned, pitied, talked at, until
he was heartily sick of everything, and longed to run away, back to
school, or anywhere, to escape it all; for he could not answer a question
without involving himself in deeper deceit, and he did honestly long to be
able to throw it off, and stand with a clear conscience again.

Another part of his punishment was the attention he came in for. He was
cossetted for a cold they felt sure he must have caught, his knees were
bandaged with ointment, his feet were prodded and poulticed to get out the
prickles; and, worst of all, there was talk of putting him to sleep in his
father's dressing-room, which opened out of his parents' bedroom, that he
might be heard and checked if he attempted again to take any more midnight
strolls. For the matter assumed a very serious aspect as the day wore on,
and they began to think less lightly of Master Paul's habit of undoing
bolts and windows, and leaving the house open to any one all the night
thr