第72章

D'you mean you only went to get the paper?""I just stopped for a second to look at it under the lamp," he muttered apologetically.

"That was a silly thing to do!"

"Perhaps it was," he admitted meekly.

Daisy had taken up the paper."Well, they don't say much," she said disappointedly."Hardly anything at all! But perhaps Mr.

Chandler 'll be in soon again.If so, he'll tell us more about it.""A young girl like you oughtn't to want to know anything about murders," said her stepmother severely."Joe won't think any the better of you for your inquisitiveness about such things.If Iwas you, Daisy, I shouldn't say nothing about it if he does come in - which I fair tell you I hope he won't.I've seen enough of that young chap to-day.""He didn't come in for long - not to-day," said Daisy, her lip trembling.

"I can tell you one thing that'll surprise you, my dear" - Mrs.

Bunting looked significantly at her step-daughter.She also wanted to get away from that dread news - which yet was no news.

"Yes?" said Daisy, rather defiantly."What is it, Ellen?""Maybe you'll be surprised to hear that Joe did come in this morning.

He knew all about that affair then, but he particular asked that you shouldn't be told anything about it.""Never!" cried Daisy, much mortified.

"Yes," went on her stepmother ruthlessly."You just ask your father over there if it isn't true.""'Tain't a healthy thing to speak overmuch about such happenings,"said Bunting heavily.

"If I was Joe," went on Mrs.Bunting, quickly pursuing her advantage, "I shouldn't want to talk about such horrid things when I comes in to have a quiet chat with friends.But the minute he comes in that poor young chap is set upon - mostly, I admit, by your father," she looked at her husband severely."But you does your share, too, Daisy! You asks him this, you asks him that - he's fair puzzled sometimes.It don't do to be so inquisitive."******

And perhaps because of this little sermon on Mrs.Bunting's part when young Chandler did come in again that evening, very little was said of the new Avenger murder.

Bunting made no reference to it at all, and though Daisy said a word, it was but a word.And Joe Chandler thought he had never spent a pleasanter evening in his life - for it was he and Daisy who talked all the time, their elders remaining for the most part silent.

Daisy told of all that she had done with Aunt Margaret.She described the long, dull hours and the queer jobs her aunt set her to do - the washing up of all the fine drawing-room china in a big basin lined with flannel, and how terrified she (Daisy) had been lest there should come even one teeny little chip to any of it.

Then she went on to relate some of the funny things Aunt Margaret had told her about "the family."There came a really comic tale, which hugely interested and delighted Chandler.This was of how Aunt Margaret's lady had been taken in by an impostor - an impostor who had come up, just as she was stepping out of her carriage, and pretended to have a fit on the doorstep.