He speculated, if Sylvia asked him where he was going again, what he could say.

He considered what he could say if she were to call him to account for his long absence that forenoon.
When he reached the house he entered the side yard, stopped at the pump, washed his hands and dried them on his handkerchief, and drank from the tin cup chained to the pump-nose.

He thought he might enter by the front door and steal into his bedroom and get the other coat, but Sylvia came to the side door.
"Where in the world have you been ?" she said.

Henry advanced, smiling, with the peppermints.

"Why, Henry," she cried, in a voice of dismay which had a gratified ring in it, "you've been and bought a whole pound! I only said to buy a quarter." "They're good for you," said Henry, entering the door.
Sylvia could not wait, and put one of the sweets in her mouth, and to that Henry owed his respite.