glass door, so that what light there was could shine upon her face; "let
me look if you have been telling me the truth. Don't be afraid; if you
have I will not punish you. I will not be hard upon you in any case, if
you will only speak the truth. Titia, a little girl like you has no business
to be creeping in and out of her papa's house like a thief. Tell at once
where have you been, and who was with you?"

The child burst out crying. "I daren't tell, or Phillis will beat me. She
said she would if I stirred an inch from the nursery, while she went
down to have tea with cook and Barker. And I thought I might just run
for ten minutes to see Miss Bennett, who wanted me so."

"You were with Miss Bennett, then? Any body else?"

"Only a gentleman," said Letitia, hanging her head and blushing with
that painful precocity of consciousness so sad to see in a little girl.

"What was his name?"

"I don't know. Miss Bennett didn't tell me. She only said he was a
friend of hers, who liked little girls, and that if I could come and have a
walk with them, without telling Phillis or any body, she would let me
off all the hardest of my French lessons. And so--and so--Oh, hide me,
there's papa at the hall door, and Aunt Henrietta coming out of the dining-
room. And Aunt Henrietta never believes what I say, even if I tell
her the truth. Oh, let me run--let me run."

The child's terror was so uncontrollable that there was nothing for it but
to yield; and she fled.