Fulbert looked pale and astounded. 'I can't get him
upstairs,' he said.
However, sense enough remained to Clement to give effect to his
eldest brother's stern words, 'Be quiet, and come up;' and they
dragged him stumbling upstairs without more words.
'Where's Lance?' then asked Felix.
'Stayed at the Froggatts'. I wish he hadn't. He will walk home by and
by.'
'Now, Ful, run and tell Cherry that nobody is hurt. Do not let her
get frightened.'
Felix spoke resolutely, but he felt so full of dismay and horror,
that he hardly knew what he was doing till Fulbert had returned, and
repressing all poor Clement's broken moralities, they had deposited
him safely in bed, and shut the door on him. Then Fulbert gazed up at
Felix with eyes full of regret and consternation, and he gathered
breath to enter his own room, and say, 'What is the meaning of this?'
'His head must be ridiculously weak: or there was some beastly trick.
Nobody else was the least queer!'
'Marshlands Hall?'
'Well, he had gone on at me so, that when Lance let himself be
persuaded into staying to hang up the lamps, it struck me what a lark
it would be to take Tina across the Hall lands, and then tell him he
had been on the enemy's ground.
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