CHAPTER XVII.
HOW TOM WENT TO SCHOOL FOR THE LAST TIME Mrs.Tom had had a troubled night.

Anxiety at her husband's continued absence had in due time given way to anger, and anger in its turn to anxiety again.
In a state of mind compounded of these wearing emotions, she had set out in the early morning to find out what had become of him; if he was sleeping off a drunken debauch at Peter Mauger's, to give them both a vigorous piece of her mind; if he was not there, to find out where he was; in any case to vent on some one the pent-up feelings of the night.
Vigorous hammering on Peter Mauger's door produced first his old housekeeper, and presently himself, heavy-eyed, dull-witted, and in flagrant dishabille, since Mrs.Guille had but a moment ago shaken him out of the sleep of those who drink not wisely over-night, with the information that a crazy woman wanted him at the door.
"Where's Tom ?" demanded Julie, ready to empty the vials of her wrath on the delinquent as soon as he was produced.
But Peter's manner at once dissipated that expectation.
"Tom ?" he said vaguely, and gazed at her with a bovine stupidity that jarred her strained nerves like a blow.
"Yes, Tom--my husband, fool! Where is he ?" she asked sharply.
"Where is he ?" scratching his tousled head to quicken his wits.

"I d'n know." "You don't know?
What did you do with him last night, you drunken fool ?"--by this time the neighbours had come out to learn the news.
Peter gaped at her in astonishment, his muddled wits and aching head beginning dimly to realize that something was wrong.
"Tom left here ...

last night ...

t'go home," he nodded emphatically.
"Well, he never got home," snapped Julie.