"Silence, Maria; don't answer him." "Yes, do ma. What does it all mean? Has Kitty bolted?" "She's drowned--she's drowned, my boy." "Nonsense, ma! You're always thinking someone is drowned. Then she has bolted. Oh, I say!" "No, sir; she has not bolted, as you term it in your miserable horsey slang. You've taken her away--there; don't deny it. You've got her somewhere, and you think you can set me at defiance." "Do I, guv'nor?" "Yes, sir, you do. But I've warned you and shown you how you stand. Now, look here; your only chance is to give up and do exactly as I tell you." "Oh, is it?" said the young man mockingly. "Yes, sir, it is. Now then, be frank and open with me at once, and I may be able to help you out of the miserable hole in which you have plunged us." "Go ahead, then. Have it your own way, guv'nor." "No time must be lost--that is, if you are not deceiving me and have already had the ceremony performed." "I didn't stand on ceremony," said Claud, with a laughing sneer; "I gave her a few kisses, and a nice row was the result." "Will you be serious, sir?" "Yes, I'm serious enough. Where has she gone?" "Where have you taken her?" "I haven't taken her anywhere, guv'nor." "Do you mean to tell me, sir, that you did not go up a ladder to her window?" "Hullo!" "Bring her down and take her right away?" "I say, guv'nor," cried Claud, with such startling energy that his father's last suspicion was swept away; "is it so bad as that?" "Then you didn't take her off?" "Of course I didn't. Take her off? What, after that scene? Likely. What nonsense, guv'nor! Do you think she'd have come?" "Claud, you amaze me, my boy," cried Wilton, who looked staggered, but his incredulity got the better of him directly. "No; only by your effrontery," he continued. "You are trifling with me; worse still, you are trifling with a large fortune. Come, it will pay you best to be frank. Where is she?" "At the bottom of the pike pond, for all I know--a termagant," cried Claud; "I tell you I haven't seen her since the row." "Then she is drowned--she's drowned." "Be quiet, Maria!" roared Wilton. "Now, boy, tell me the truth for once in a way; did you elope with Kate?" "No, guv'nor, I did not," cried the young man. "I never had the chance, or I'd have done it like a shot." Wilton's jaw dropped. He was quite convinced now, and he sank into a chair, staring at his son. "I--I thought you had made short work of it," said Wilton, huskily. "Then she really has gone?" said Claud in a whisper. "Yes, yes, my dear," burst out Mrs Wilton. "I knew it! I was right at first." "Where has she gone, then, mother?" "Hold your tongue, woman!" cried Wilton, angrily. "You don't know anything about it--how could she get a ladder there? Footsteps on the flower-bed, my boy. A man in it. I thought it was you." "And all that money gone," cried Claud.