'
'Perhaps,' said Elizabeth, 'he had some knowledge of the frightful
suspicions which attached to him, and, like the Irish varmint in St.
Patrick's days,
"went flop,
Slap bang into the water,
And thus committed suicide
To save himself from slaughter."'
They now began to consider how Fido could have met with his death.
Harriet was sure that some naughty boy must have thrown him in. Lucy
thought that in that case he would have lost his blue ribbon; Dora
indignantly repelled the charge of cruelty from the youth of
Abbeychurch; Elizabeth said such a puppy was very likely to fall off
the bridge; and Rupert decided that he had most probably been
attacked by a fit, to which, he said, half-grown puppies were often
liable.
Rupert and Anne then began talking about a dog which they had lost
some time ago in nearly the same manner; and during this dialogue the
party divided, Harriet and Katherine walked on in close consultation,
and Lucy and Helen began helping Dora to sort and carry her
bulrushes, which detained them behind the others.
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