va went into the sitting-room, and fetched them
out--the bunch of pinks, the cup and saucer, and the doll. Ellen's
eyes gave a quick look of love and delight at the doll.

"She had these, luggin' along in her little arms, when I first
caught sight of her comin'," said Eva.

"Where did you get them, Ellen?" asked Fanny. "Who gave them to
you?"

Ellen was silent, with all their inquiring eyes fixed upon her face
like a compelling battery. "Where have you been, Ellen, all the time
you have been gone?" asked Mrs. Zelotes. "Now you have got back
safe, you must tell us where you have been."

Andrew stooped his head down to the child's, and rubbed his rough
cheek against her soft one, with his old facetious caress. "Tell
father where you've been," he whispered. Ellen gave him a little
piteous glance, and her lip quivered, but she did not speak.

"Where do you s'pose she got them?" whispered one neighbor to
another.

"I can't imagine; that's a beautiful doll."

"Ain't it? It must have cost a lot. I know, because my Hattie had
one her aunt gave her last Christmas; that one cost a dollar and
ninety-eight cents, and it didn't begin to compare with this. That's
a handsome cup and saucer, too."

"Yes, but you can get real handsome cups and saucers to Crosby's for
twenty-five cents. I don't think so much of that."

"Them pinks must have come from a greenhouse."

"Yes, they must."

"Well, there's lots of greenhouses in the city besides the florists.
That don't help much." Then the first woman inclined her lips
closely to the other woman's ear and whispered, causing the other to
start back. "No, I can't believe she would," said she.

"She came from those Louds on her mother's side," whispered the
first woman, guardedly, with dark emphasis.

"Ellen," said Fanny, suddenly, and almost sharply, "you didn't take
those things in any way you hadn't ought to, did you? Tell mother."

"Fanny!" cried Andrew.

"If she did, it's the first time a Brewster ever stole," said Mrs.
Zelotes. Her face was no longer strange with unwonted sweetness as
she looked at Fanny.

Andrew put his face down to Ellen's again. "Father knows she didn't
steal the things; never mind," he whispered.

Suddenly the stout woman made a soft, ponderous rush out of the room
and the house. She passed the window with oscillating swiftness.

"Where's Miss Wetherhed gone?" said one woman to another.

"She's thought of somethin'."

"Maybe she left her brea