elt an insane temptation for a moment to destroy or retain it. Time
was everything just then, and even without the fragment he had been
able to read, he could, from his knowledge of the writer, conclude
with tolerable certainty that he would not write again without having
received an answer to his first letter. 'If I was only alone with it!'
he thought impatiently. But he was a prudent young man, and perfectly
aware of the consequences of purloining correspondence; and besides,
there was Dolly to be reckoned with--she alone had seen the thing as
yet. But then she _had_ seen it, and was not more likely to hold her
tongue about that than any other given subject. No, he could do
nothing; he must let things take their own course and be hanged to
them!

His gloomy face filled Dolly with a sudden fear; she forgot her
dislike, and came timidly up to him and touched his arm. 'What's the
matter, Harold?' she faltered. 'Mabel won't be angry. I--I haven't
done anything _wrong_, have I, Harold?'

He came out of his reverie to see her upturned face raised to his--and
started; his active brain had in that instant decided on a desperate
expedient, suggested by the sight of the trouble in her eyes. 'By
Jove, I'll try!' he thought; 'it's worth it--she's such a child--I may
manage it yet!'

'Wrong!' he said impressively, 'it's worse than that. My poor Dolly,
didn't you really know what you were doing?'

'N--no,' said Dolly; 'Harold, don't tease me--don't tell me what isn't
true ... it--it frightens me so!'

'My dear child, what can I tell you? Surely you know that what you did
was stealing?'

'Stealing!' echoed Dolly, with great surprised eyes. 'Oh, no,
Harold--not _stealing_. Why, of course I shall tell Mabel, and ask her
for the stamp afterwards--only if I hadn't torn it off first, she
might throw it away before I could ask, you know!'

'I'm afraid it was stealing all the same,' said Caffyn, affecting a
sorrowfully compassionate tone; 'nothing can alter that now, Dolly.'

'Mabel won't be angry with me for that, I know,' said Dolly; 'she will
see how it was really.'

'If it was only Mabel,' said Caffyn, 'we should have no reason to
fear; but Mabel can't do anything for you, poor Dolly! It's the _law_
that punishes these things. You know what law is?--the police, and the
judges.'

The piteous change in the child's face, the dark eyes brimming with
rising tears, and the little mouth drawn and trembling, might have
touched so