I began to repent of that myself.

It had quite spoilt our day, and so many and long were the silences, as we wandered from little shop to little shop, and finally with relief to the train, that I had plenty of time to remember how much we had found to talk about all the morning.
But matters were coming to a head in spite of me, for Bob Evers waylaid us on our return, and, with hardly a word to Mrs.Lascelles, straightway followed me to my room.

He was pale with a suppressed anger which flared up even as he closed my door behind him, but though his honest face was now in flames, he still kept control of his tongue.
"I want you to lend me one of those sticks of yours," he said, quietly; "the heaviest, for choice." "What the devil for ?" I demanded, thinking for the moment of no shoulders but my own.
"To give that bounder Quinby the licking he deserves!" cried Bob: "to give it him now at once, when the post comes in, and there are plenty of people about to see the fun.

Do you know what he's been saying and spreading all over the place ?" "No," I answered, my heart sinking within me.

"What has he been saying ?" The colour altered on Bob's face, altered and softened to a veritable blush, and his eyes avoided mine.
"I'm ashamed to tell you, it makes me so sick," he said, disgustedly.
"But the fact is that he's been spreading a report about Mrs.Lascelles; it has nothing on earth to do with me.