"The accident?"

"I burnt her," said Alison, almost inaudibly.

"You! you, poor dear! How dreadful for you."

"Yes, I burnt her," said Alison, more steadily. "You ought not to be
kind to me without knowing about it. It was an accident of course,
but it was a fit of petulance. I threw a match without looking where
it was going."

"It must have been when you were very young."

"Fourteen. I was in a naughty fit at her refusing to go to the great
musical meeting with us. We always used to go to stay at one of the
canon's houses for it, a house where one was dull and shy; and I
could not bear going without her, nor understand the reason."

"And was there a reason?"

"Yes, poor dear Ermine. She knew he meant to come there to meet her,
and she thought it would not be right; because his father had
objected so strongly, and made him exchange into a regiment on
foreign service."

"And you did not know this?"

"No, I was away all the time it was going on, with my eldest sister,
having masters in London. I did not come home till it was all over,
and then I could not understand what was the matter with the house,