"And love is so sweet, and life so bitter! I'll not be hard upon her, poor
girl!" thought Christian, with a faint sigh. "Whatever is done I will do
myself and then it can injure nobody."
So she put on shawl and bonnet, and was just slipping out at the hall
door, rather thankful that Barker was absent from his post, when she
met Titia creeping stealthily in, not at the front door, but at the glass
door, which led to the garden behind; to which garden there was only
one other entrance, a little door leading into Walnut-tree Court, and of
this door Barker usually kept the key. Now, however, it hung from the
little girl's hand, the poor frightened creature, who, the minute she saw
her step-mother, tried to run away up stairs.
"Titia, come back! Tell me where you have been, without Phillis or
any body, and when I desired you not to go out again."
"It was only to--to fetch a crocus for Atty."
"Where is the crocus?"
"I--dropped it."
"And this key. What did you want with the key?"
"I--I don't know."
The lie failed, if they were lies; but perhaps they might have been
partly true; the child hung her head and began to whimper. She was not
quite hardened, then.
"Come here to me," said Christian, sadly and gravely, leading her to the
glass door, so that what light there was could shine upon her face; "let
me look if you have been telling me the truth.
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