tea, and Miss
Charlotte, after a brief conversation with her uncle, slid off the
sofa and trotted away to the end window, where she appeared to be
diligently playing hide-and-seek with herself. Suddenly her elders
were startled with a prolonged cry of anguish and Renata flew to the
rescue.

"I tan't find it; naughty mousie taken my booful golden penny," sobbed
Charlotte in her mother's arms. Renata could make nothing of her grief
and persisted in thinking that she was hurt, and cuddling her. Aymer,
listening attentively, said suddenly to Renata in his imperious way:

"Give Charlotte to me, Renata, and take baby away."

Renata obeyed meekly. People had a weak way of obeying Aymer on
occasions, even against their will.

"Now, Miss Charlotte," said Aymer, when the young lady was safely
deposited by him, "tell me about it. What golden penny was it?"

But Charlotte got suddenly red and stopped crying.

"Were you playing with it yesterday in the window?" asked her uncle.

Charlotte nodded.

"Was it your penny or mine?"

"Wasn't nobody's, only mummy's. You _said they_ were for her.
Charlotte wasn't naughty."

"Did you find it on the floor?"

"No."

"Where then?"

"Dey was all in nice itty rows on the table. I only taken one pitty
goldy penny. Mummy gives me goldy pennies always."

"Sovereigns for playthings, Renata. That's very immoral."

"No, only new halfpennies. Charlotte didn't know any better, Aymer."

"And you played with it in the window there and left it there."

"Is I naughty?"

"Not very naughty--if you tell me. Did you leave it there?"

Charlotte's lip trembled. "I putted it to bed in the curtain by a
mousehole, and it's all gone, naughty mousie."

"Go and see, Renata, if there's a hole there."

"Please," said Charlotte gravely.

"Please what?"

"Please go and see."

Aymer laughed. "I beg your pardon, Renata. Please will you mind
looking for the mousehole?"

"I tan't see the mousehole," put in Charlotte, "I only 'tend it."

But Renata looked all the same. There was no mousehole and no golden
penny.

"It is all right," explained Aymer in answer to his sister-in-law's
troubled look. "I know all about it. Don't worry your little head. We
will give Charlotte another golden penny, or a silver one. Only," he
added, regarding his small niece severely, "Charlotte must not touch
anyone's pennies again, not mummy's or Uncle Aymer's, or anyone's. It
is not dreadfully naughty this time, but