IN A LANE, NOT ALONE Stephen Anerley's daughter was by no means of a crooked mind, but open as the day in all things, unless any one mistrusted her, and showed it by cross-questioning.

When this was done, she resented it quickly by concealing the very things which she would have told of her own accord; and it so happened that the person to whom of all she should have been most open, was the one most apt to check her by suspicious curiosity.
And now her mother already began to do this, as concerned the smuggler, knowing from the revenue officer that Mary must have seen him.

Mary, being a truthful damsel, told no lies about it; but, on the other hand, she did not rush forth with all the history, as she probably would have done if left unexamined.

And so she said nothing about the ear-ring, or the run that was to come off that week, or the riding-skirt, or a host of little things, including her promise to visit Bempton Lane.
On the other hand, she had a mind to tell her father, and take his opinion about it all.

But he was a little cross that evening, not with her, but with the world at large; and that discouraged her; and then she thought that being an officer of the king--as he liked to call himself sometimes--he might feel bound to give information about the impending process of free trade; which to her would be a breach of honor, considering how she knew of it.
Upon the whole, she heartily wished that she never had seen that Robin Lyth; and then she became ashamed of herself for indulging such a selfish wish.