this."

Miss Wilton took the broken ivory in her hand.

"Dear, dear," she said. "How disgracefully this miniature has been
cracked and distorted. A child's face, I see, painted in a weak,
washed-out style, and glass and ivory are both broken, and frame bent.
This miniature must have been subjected to very rough usage. The
miniature is yours, Miss Nelson?"

"Yes. It is a likeness of my--my sister. Give it back to me, please,
Miss Wilton."

"And you say it was stolen from you?"

"Yes. It always hung over that mantelpiece. It was taken away the day
after the boys came home from school."

Miss Wilton stood quite still for a moment; she was a very downright,
practical sort of person. "Extraordinary as my question must seem,
Basil," she said, turning suddenly to her nephew, "I am forced to ask
it, as you appear to be mixed up in the affair. Did you take the
miniature?"

"I? Certainly not," said Basil, coloring high.

"But you know something about it?"

"Yes; I know something about it."

"Who took it away?"

"I am not at liberty to tell you, Aunt Elizabeth."

Miss Nelson gazed anxiously into Basil's face. She had put the broken
bits of ivory on the table. Now she tenderly laid the soft
tissue-paper over them.

"You have brought me back the miniature, Basil," she said.

"I have," said Basil bluntly, "and that's about all. I don't know how
it was broken, and what else I know I am not going to tell. I'm
awfully sorry about the whole thing, but I thought you would rather
have the miniature back as it is, than not get it at all, Miss
Nelson."

"That is true," said Miss Nelson.

Basil was turning to leave the room, but Miss Wilton suddenly stepped
before him to the door, and shut it.

"You shan't leave, sir, until you tell everything!" she said. "_I_
know what mischievous creatures boys are. You took that miniature away
out of wanton mischief; you fiddled with it, and broke it, and now you
are afraid to confess. But I'll have no funking the truth. Tell what
you have done, this minute, you bad boy!"

"I found the miniature, and I've returned it to Miss Nelson," replied
Basil, in a quiet, still voice, which kept under all the anger which
made his dark eyes glow.

"Yes, and you stole it in the first instance, and then broke it. Out
with the truth; no half-measures with me," retorted Miss Wilton.

Basil laughed harshly.

"You're mistaken, Aunt Elizabeth; I neither stole the miniature nor
broke it."

"I am