"_Et tu Brute!_" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Frank, in a tone of mingled surprise and reproach.

"Louis!" said Reginald, coloring deeply; "oh, Louis! How did you find it, Hamilton?"

"Did you not see it come in through the half-open door just now?"

said Hamilton.

"I fancied I saw something fly along," said Meredith.

"I thought I heard something fall," said another.

"Too cowardly to come openly," said Trevannion.

The room seemed to turn round with Louis.

"How did you come by this?" said Hamilton.

There was no answer.

"I will have an answer, Louis," he said: "and if you don't give it to me, you shall to Dr. Wilkinson!"

Louis murmured something that no one heard.

"What?" said Hamilton, sharply; "speak so as we can all hear. If you have brought it back for some one else," he added, in a softened tone, "say so at once; only let me know who took it."

"I took it," replied Louis, with a great effort.

"You ungrateful viper!" exclaimed Jones.

Hamilton appeared a little moved, but checking the emotion, continued:

"You! for--your--own--especial--gratification? And pray, when might you have accomplished that adroit and praiseworthy feat?"

"Last Friday," said Louis, in so low a tone, that nothing but the silence that reigned could have made it audible.

"And what was your motive?" asked Hamilton, leaning back against the mantelpiece, and putting one foot on the fender behind him.

"Only a little fun!"

"Pretty respectable _fun_!" said Hamilton, contemptuously.

"Grat.i.tude might have restrained you, one would think," said Jones, "if nothing else would. A pretty return for all Hamilton's kindness, to set to work to lose him his prize!"

"I didn't, Jones," said Louis, warmly; "I thought it was a letter; I didn't mean any harm. And as to grat.i.tude--when Hamilton was kind to me, I was grateful--and I do feel grateful for his kindness now; but he has been unkind enough lately to make me forget that."

"And reason enough he had," said Meredith. "Unkind, indeed! why no one else stood your friend when we found out what a tell-tale you were."

"I am sure n.o.body knew he was my friend then," said Louis, a.s.suming an air of independence that ill became him. "Only last Friday, he let me believe that Trevannion had the doctor's Rollin; he offered me his, but I wasn't likely to take that, and--" Louis hesitated, for Hamilton's eye was upon him so calmly and inquiringly; and Louis felt he was not likely to have had such an idea in his head.

"And what?" said Hamilton, quietly.

"Nothing," replied Louis; "I don't believe you knew, only it was rather strange, Hamilton."

"What was strange?" said Hamilton, in the same unmoved tone.

"Only when I came back into this room, I saw it on the table with your things, and I thought you had it, perhaps," said Louis, reluctantly.

"If it hadn't been for that, I shouldn't have come here, and shouldn't have thought of playing the trick."

"You little--" exclaimed Trevannion. Not being able to find a genteel epithet strong enough, he continued, "When Hamilton had just taken the trouble of exchanging his own history with me, for your service! I see it all now, Hamilton--you ungrateful boy!"

"How should I know? he never said so," replied Louis, touched to the heart at this proof of his friend's kindness; and grieved very deeply that he should have thought or said so unkind a thing of him in his anger. "How am I to know what people think, if they don't speak, or if I don't see them?"

"And so you did it out of revenge?" said Hamilton.

Louis was silent for a minute, for he could not speak; but at last he replied, in a quivering voice--

"No; I told you I did it out of fun. I thought it was a letter, and--and I have been very sorry I ever did any thing so foolish.

I should have brought it back sooner, but I could not remember what I did with it."

"Why did you not tell me, at least, that you had taken it, Louis,"

said Hamilton, "when I was inquiring for it? It would have been more open."

"I should have done it, I believe, if I had known how you would have heard me--but it's not so easy when every one is against you. I brought it only a few minutes after I found it."

"Who put such a thing into your head, Louis?" asked Reginald.

Louis checked the answer he had nearly given, and remained silent.

"Were you alone?" said Hamilton. "Were you the only one concerned in this business?"

"I was not alone," replied Louis, rather proudly; "but I do not mean to say who was with me. He was not to blame for what I did."

"How so?" asked Hamilton. "Didn't he put it into your head, and help you to do it?"

"You have no right to ask such questions," said Louis, uneasily.

"He came in to help me find Rollin, and--that's all I shall tell you."

"What, Ca.s.son help you to find Rollin!" said Hamilton, quickly.

"He wouldn't know the book from a Lexicon."

"He did, however," said Louis; then, becoming suddenly conscious, from the intelligent glances exchanged among his judges, of the admission he had made, he turned very red, and exclaimed,

"It's very unfair!"

"I knew he was your companion," said Hamilton, rather scornfully. "You have belonged to his set too much lately to suppose otherwise--and this is the consequence."

"If it is, Hamilton," said Louis, scarcely able to speak for the warmth of his feelings, "you might have prevented it if you would. You wouldn't forgive my speaking carelessly once--and no one that I cared for would notice me. He was almost the only one who would speak to me. If you had said one word, I shouldn't have been so bad. I thought you didn't care about me, and I didn't mean to stay where I wasn't wanted."

The expression of Hamilton's face was not easy, and he drowned the end of Louis' speech by knocking all the fire-irons down with a movement of his poised foot.