the mat. But on the table! How could it be broken on the table?"

"Someone has been touching it and let it drop."

"I be so careless as to break my bottle? It is impossible to think of!
I never come away without a look to see that it is safe. I dust my
dressing-table myself every morning, so that no one shall interfere with
my things. The servants know that it is so. When I came downstairs
this evening it was all right. I have not been upstairs since."

"I think very few of us have. We have been too busy. Ellen would go
in, of course, to prepare the bed. Did she--"

"Yes! It was Ellen who told me. I was in the hall, and she came out of
the kitchen and said, `Oh, Mademoiselle, do you know? Your beautiful
bottle is broken!'" Mademoiselle's voice broke; she held out the pieces
and exclaimed in broken tones, "And I ran--and I saw--this!"

"I am sorry! I am grieved! But we must get to the bottom of this
mystery. Things do not fall over and break by themselves. Girls, do
any of you know anything about this? If so, please speak out at once,
and don't be afraid to tell the truth. If by any chance one of you has
unintentionally broken Mademoiselle's bottle, I know you will be as
deeply grieved as she can be herself; but the only thing you can do now
is to explain, and beg her forgiveness. Carelessness it must have been,
and you cannot hope to escape altogether without punishment, but
remember deception is fifty times worse. I have no mercy on a girl who
knows she is guilty, and lets her companions rest under the shadow of
suspicion. Now, I ask you again, do you know anything at all of the
cause of this accident?"

There was a unanimous burst of denial from all parts of the room; but
different girls took the question in different ways, as was natural to
the different characters. Some looked grieved, some indignant, a few
showed suspicions of tears, and Pixie looked so thoroughly scared and
miserable that more than one eye rested curiously upon her.

Miss Phipps glanced around with her keen, scrutinising glance, then
pressed her lips together, and said sharply--

"This becomes serious! You all deny it? Very well, I must find out the
truth for myself. Call Ellen, please, Mademoiselle. I am sorry to have
such a painful ending to our happy holiday, but we cannot go to bed with
this cloud hanging over us. Ellen, Mademoiselle tells me that you found
the scent-bottle broken when you went into her room