"Nothing at first; but presently he brought out very quietly: 'I spent all last night in the confounded place.' We both stared and cried out at this and I asked him what he had seen there. He said he had seen nothing, and Miss Julian replied that he ought to tell his story better than that--he ought to make something good of it. 'It's not a story--it's a simple fact,' said he; on which she jeered at him and wanted to know why, if he had done it, he hadn't told her in the morning, since he knew what she thought of him. 'I know, but I don't care,' said Wingrave. This made her angry, and she asked him quite seriously whether he would care if he should know she believed him to be trying to deceive us." "Ah, what a brute!" cried Spencer Coyle. "She's a most extraordinary girl--I don't know what she's up to." "Extraordinary indeed--to be romping and bandying words at that hour of the night with fast young men!" Young Lechmere reflected a moment. "I mean because I think she likes him." Spencer Coyle was so struck with this unwonted symptom of subtlety that he flashed out: "And do you think he likes _her_?" But his interlocutor only replied with a puzzled sigh and a plaintive "I don't know--I give it up!--I'm sure he _did_ see something or hear something," young Lechmere added. "In that ridiculous place? What makes you sure?" "I don't know--he looks as if he had. He behaves as if he had." "Why then shouldn't he mention it?" Young Lechmere thought a moment. "Perhaps it's too gruesome!" Spencer Coyle gave a laugh. "Aren't you glad then _you're_ not in it?" "Uncommonly!" "Go to bed, you goose," said Spencer Coyle, with another laugh. "But before you go tell me what he said when she told him he was trying to deceive you." "'Take me there yourself, then, and lock me in!'" "And _did_ she take him?" "I don't know--I came up." Spencer Coyle exchanged a long look with his pupil. "I don't think they're in the hall now. Where's Owen's own room?" "I haven't the least idea."