Roy sat motionless. That view of the matter had not yet occurred to him. He dismissed Molly's first words as unimportant, being merely a girl's unreasonable view of things, with which he as a boy could not be expected to agree. But that he--Roy Baron, son of a Colonel in His Majesty's Guards--should be accused of "meanness!" The word stung sharply. Roy always pictured his own future in connection with a scarlet coat, a three-cornered cocked hat, a beautiful pigtail, and the stiffest of military stocks to hold up his chin. He knew something of a soldier's sense of honour, and even now he felt ready to fight his country's battles. And that he should be accused of meanness--and by a girl! "I do think so," Molly added. "It was horridly mean. Prying into what you weren't meant to hear! And then coming and telling me! If I had done such a thing, you'd have been the first to call it mean." Roy stood bolt upright. "You needn't have said it to me like that!" he said. "You might have told me, Molly--different, somehow. But I wouldn't be mean for anything, and I'm going to tell papa, straight off." Roy did not ask Molly to go with him, and she was keenly sensible of the omission. He marched off alone, carrying his head as high as if the military stock had already encircled his throat. When he went into the drawing-room there was a pause in the conversation; and this seemed to show that Molly was in the right. She might be cross, but perhaps she had judged correctly. "Run away, Roy," the Colonel said. "We did not send for you, and we are busy." "Please, sir, may I say something first?" Roy advanced unfalteringly, and stood in front of the Colonel. "Well, be quick, my boy. You are interrupting us." Roy's honest grey eyes met his father's. "I was out there," he said, pointing to the verandah. "And I heard something. I didn't think about its being a secret, and I listened. I heard about going to Paris, and I--I went and told Molly. And she said it was mean of me. And I--couldn't be mean, sir!" "No, Roy, you couldn't," the Colonel answered with gravity, while delighted at the boy's openness. "I didn't mean any harm; but I suppose I oughtn't to have listened. I won't ever again, sir." "Well, yes; of course that was wrong," the Colonel said, with a careful choice of words. "You should have told us that you were there. And you must not look upon the plan as--ahem--as quite settled. We are merely discussing it; and we might change our intentions----" "I am sure, my dear sir, I heartily wish you would," chimed in Mrs. Bryce. The Colonel made her a stately bow. "And if I had found you out, Roy, overhearing us, I should certainly have blamed you. But as you have voluntarily confessed it, I"--the Colonel hesitated, conscious of his wife's pleading gaze--"well, we need say no more about the matter. You have acted rightly in coming at once to me; and I am convinced that you will not do such a thing again. Now you may run away."