'
'No excuses, if you please, Katherine,' said Mr. Woodbourne; 'I wish
to hear exactly how it happened.'
'First, Papa,' said Elizabeth, 'let me beg one thing of you, do not
tell Mrs. Hazleby that Harriet went with us, for she could not know
that it was wrong of us to go, and she is very much afraid of her
mother's anger.'
Mr. Woodbourne made a sign of assent; and Elizabeth proceeded to give
a full account of the indiscreet expedition, taking the blame so
entirely upon herself, that although Katherine was on the watch to
contradict anything that might tell unfavourably for her, she could
not find a word to gainsay--speaking very highly of Helen, not
attempting to make the slightest excuse, or to plead her sorrow for
what had happened as a means of averting her father's displeasure,
and ending by asking permission to go to Mrs. Turner the instant the
Hazlebys had left Abbeychurch, to tell her that the excursion had
been entirely without Mr. Woodbourne's knowledge or consent. 'For,'
said she, 'that is the least I can do towards repairing what can
never be repaired.
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