It was all in
such a scramble, that I had no notion there was anything amiss till
Clem began to talk on the way home.'
'What were they drinking?'
'Various things--brandy-and-water chiefly. I don't like it, and had
some ale; but I was playing with Harry's puppies, and not much
noticing Clem.'
'Do you think it was a trick?'
'I can't tell. He is so innocent, he would have no notion how stiff
to make it. If any one meant mischief, it was Jackman; and I did
think once or twice he had found out Tina, and was playing him off.
On the way home, when I was trying to hinder poor Clem from falling
off, he went on chaffing so, that I longed to jump off, and lay the
whip about his ears.'
'Poor Clem!' said Felix, more grieved and shocked than angry, and not
insensible to Fulbert's being even more appalled, and quite
frightened out of his sulkiness.
'It is a bad business,' he sighed. 'It was all Lance's fault for
letting himself be lugged into that baby party.'
Even this was a great admission, and Felix would not blight it by a
word.
'It is well the girls are not at home,' was all he said.
'I only told Cherry that Clem wasn't well.
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