Not a word.

"Then I grieve to say I must tell all to your mother."

There was a sort of smile of defiance, and he followed her. For a
moment she thought of preventing this, and preparing Fanny in
private, but recollecting that this would give him the opportunity
of preparing Hubert to support his falsehood, she let him enter with
her, and sought Lady Temple in the nursery.

"Dear Fanny, I am very sorry to bring you so much vexation. I am
afraid it will be a bitter grief to you, but it is only for Conrade's
own sake that I do it. It was a cruel thing to take a bird's-nest at
all, but worse when he knew that his Aunt Grace was particularly fond
of it; and, besides, he had promised not to touch it, and now,
saddest of all, he denies having done so."

"Oh, Conrade, Conrade!" cried Fanny, quite confounded, "You can't
have done like this!"

"So, I have not," said Conrade, coming up to her, as she held out her
hand, positively encouraging him, as Rachel thought, to persist in
the untruth.

"Listen, Fanny," said Rachel. "I do not wonder that you are
unwilling to believe anything so shocking, but I do not come without
being only too certain." And she gave the facts, to which Fanny
listened with pale cheeks and tearful eyes, then turned to the boy,
whose hand she had held all the time, and said, "Dear Con, do pray
tell me if you did it."