“Devil a bit, but even so, you could have trusted me.” “I have no doubt,” she replied soberly, “but I was afraid lest your mother should insist that I be returned to my family. I dared not take the risk, and whilst you were sleeping I took the key from your pocket.” “I had gathered that much, but where the deuce did you go, and in that state?” She would not tell him of the days she had spent wandering the streets and the hardships she had faced. It would only serve to prove how foolish she had been to abscond from his protection. Nor would she make mention that she had been present on the day of the race, preferring not to bring that to mind. Instead, she would gloss over that time and make little of her sufferings as it was all in the past now and it would serve no purpose to regale him with how desperate she had become. “To tell truth, sir, I was not long away from home. I was on the point of returning when I came across David, my younger brother, looking for me...”
