treated his sister's doll, did not ask any further questions.
All the next day he behaved much better. His finger hurt him, and
morning and evening he went humbly to Fanny to get it dressed, because
he found she did it so gently and carefully.
No one said anything about the doll, and he wondered what had become of
it. Once or twice he thought that if he could find it he would put it
out of the way altogether, for he was dreadfully afraid lest his granny
or papa should discover that its head had been cut off. At last he
thought he would dig a hole in the garden and put it into it, and cover
it up, and then no one would be able to find it.
"Fanny has not told about it," he thought, "she and Mrs Norton are the
only people who know what I did, and as they have said nothing as yet, I
hope that they will not."
Norman did not consider that although neither his papa or mamma or
granny might discover what he proposed doing, God would not only see
him, but knew already the evil in his heart, and that should he continue
to indulge his bad feelings, they would grow with his growth, and when
he became a man they would too probably make him do things too terrible
to mention.
As soon as he had made up his mind what to do, while Fanny was at her
lessons, he stole into her room, expecting to find the doll. He saw
that it was not in the doll's house, and so he looked into her bed, and
then he opened all her drawers, but no doll was to be found. He had
seen her one day going in with it to granny's room, so he thought it
might be there. Mrs Leslie was downstairs, he therefore hoped that he
might be able to creep in and search for the doll without being
discovered. He listened, the drawing-room door was closed, and he knew
that Susan was not in that part of the house, so, walking on tiptoes, in
he stole. He looked about in every part of the room where he thought
the doll might be placed.
"Perhaps Fanny puts it in one of the drawers," he said to himself, "but
then what would granny say if she found out that I had looked into
them."
At last he put his hands to the handle, and opened a drawer just wide
enough to peep in, but the doll was not there. He opened the next, but
using greater force, he pulled it much wider open than he had intended:
no doll was within. He tried to close it, but found he could not
succeed, he pushed and pushed, still the drawer would not close; at
last, putting his shoulder to it, he lifted it
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