u didn't care to have her with you!"

"Oh, don't I care? I'm thinking of her all the time. It's about her I
want to speak to you, Maggie, But, first of all have you heard of
Miss Nelson's loss?"

"No, what loss?"

"Some one has taken a miniature out of her sitting-room."

"A miniature? Which--which miniature? Speak, Basil."

"You needn't eat me with your eyes, Maggie. I don't know. I didn't do
it!"

"Oh, no; but what miniature is it, Basil?"

"I tell you, I didn't see it, Maggie. It hung over her mantelpiece,
and she kept flowers under it. She seemed to prize it a great lot."

"Not the picture of a rather silly little girl with blue eyes and a
smile? Not that one? Don't tell me it was that one, Basil."

"Then you do know about it. I suppose it was that one. She was in an
awful state."

"No wonder. Oh, poor Miss Nelson!"

"Do talk like a reasonable being, Maggie. What was there so
marvelously precious in the picture of a silly little girl?"

"Yes, but _that_ silly little girl was her own--not her child, but her
sister, and she loved her beyond all the world, and--the little sister
went to the angels. Once she told me about her--only once. It was on a
Sunday night. Oh, poor Miss Nelson!"

"Well, don't cry, Mag--she must have the picture back. She has got a
horrid thought in her head about it, though."

"A horrid thought? Miss Nelson has a horrid thought? Oh, Basil, don't
you begin to misunderstand her."

"Shut up!" said Basil. "Who talks about my misunderstanding her? She
has got a wrong notion into her head about Ermie, that's all. She
thinks Ermie took the miniature out of revenge. There! Is not that bad
enough? Now, what's the matter, Maggie? You are not going to tell me
that you think Miss Nelson is right?"

"No," said Marjorie, shaking her fat little self, after an aggravating
habit of hers when she was perplexed. "Of course I don't think
anything of the kind, still----" She was remembering Ermengarde's
agitation of the day before--her almost frantic wish to return alone
to the house.

Marjorie grew quite red as this memory came over her.

"Well, won't you speak?" said Basil. "Miss Nelson must get back her
miniature."

"Of course she must, Basil."

"She believes that Ermengarde took it."

"Yes; of course she is mistaken."

"She is very positive."

"Oh, that's a way of hers. She's quite obstinate when she gets an idea
into her head."

"A fixed idea, eh?" Basil laughed.

Marjorie did