And the youngest young lady put an eye to the heart-shaped hole, and then opened the shutter and said "Well?" very crossly.
Then Oswald said—
"I am very sorry, and I beg your pardon. We wanted to be detectives, and we thought a gang of coiners infested your house, so we looked through your window last night. I saw the lettuce, and I heard what you said about the salmon being three-halfpence cheaper, and I know it is very dishonourable to pry into other people's secrets, especially ladies', and I never will again if you will forgive me this once."
Then the lady frowned and then she laughed, and then she said—
"So it was you tumbling into the flower-pots last night? We thought it was burglars. It frightened us horribly. Why, what a bump on your poor head!"
And then she talked to me a bit, and presently she said she and her sister had not wished people to know they were at home, because—— And then she stopped short and grew very red, and I said, "I thought you were all at Scarborough; your servant told Eliza so. Why didn't you want people to know you were at home?"
