n so
troubled with the children; I hoped that Susan would have minded them
while we were out.'

'Well, go now and take off your things, my dear,' replied Mrs. Ellis;
'then you and Mabel can have tea in the nursery with the children, while
I rest on the sofa.'

'Yes, dear mamma; they shall go with me at once,' said Julia. 'Come,
Freddy; come, Gerty; and come, little Willie,' she added, as she took
the chubby hand in her own, and was leading him away, when her mamma
said, 'Mind you don't hurt his poor leg, Julia, for he has fallen and
scraped the skin off.'

'Oh, poor boy!' said his sister, as she took Willie up in her arms; 'let
us go and put a "passer" on it.' This was always what the little fellow
called out for, when he hurt himself: 'Oh, put a "passer" on--put a
"passer" on!'

Mabel was very glad when Julia brought up the children, and told her
that their mamma was lying down on the sofa, for she had no wish to talk
just then with anybody. She felt indeed much disquieted, but what her
feelings were when her sister related the circumstance of their papa's
coming home, on purpose to take them to a place of amusement, may be
more easily imagined then described; and yet we fear that self-reproach
did not, in the smallest degree, mingle with their feelings, so little
do some people know of _self_.

CHAPTER IV.

THE RECOVERED TREASURE.

It was with a feeling of great uneasiness that Mabel awoke the next
morning. She had not at all made up her mind what to do. She was, as I
have shown, a very selfish girl, and not by any means of a good
disposition; indeed, I should say, that no selfish person could be. But
she was not in the habit of telling direct falsehoods, though she did
not scruple to prevaricate, if such a course suited her purpose; and
this practice is certainly not only near akin to falsehood, but leads
directly to it.

Nothing was said at breakfast-time to make any disturbance, and papa
went out as usual; while Mabel and Julia, with minds still oppressed by
the loss on the preceding day, requested mamma to permit them to take
the children for a walk, before they began lessons.

'It is such a lovely morning,' said Mabel, 'and we can go towards the
Park, the same way that we went yesterday.'

Of course the brooch was uppermost in Mabel's mind, and indeed in
Julia's too, though nothing was then said.

'I am quite willing that you should all go, my dears,' said the kind
mother; 'only rememb