had any."

"It wasn't a sovereign; it was a _half_-sovereign," corrected Floss.

"I don't under'tand how it _could_ be a half-sovereign," said Carrots.
"But I never touched nurse's drawer, nor nucken in it."

"Then where _did_ you find the half-sovereign?" began Floss, "and
why--oh, Carrots," she broke off, "I do believe that's the front door
bell. It'll be mamma coming. I must run down."

"All right," called out Carrots again. "Don't be long, Floss; but please
tell mamma all about it. I _don't_ under'tand."

He gave a little sigh of perplexity, and lay down on the floor near the
window, where the room was lightest, for the darkness was now beginning
to creep in, and he felt very lonely.

Poor Mrs. Desart hardly knew what to think or say, when, almost before
she had got into the house, she was seized upon by Maurice and Floss,
each eager to tell their own story. _Carrots_ naughty, _Carrots_ in
disgrace, was such an extraordinary idea!

"Nurse," she exclaimed, perceiving her at the end of the passage, whence
she had been watching as anxiously as the children for her mistress's
return, "nurse, what is the meaning of it all?"

"Indeed, ma'am," nurse was beginning, but she was interrupted. "Come in
here, Lucy," said Captain Desart to his wife, opening the study door,
"come in here before you go upstairs."

And Mrs. Desart did as he asked, but Floss again managed to creep in
too, almost hidden in the folds of her mother's dress.

"I can't believe that Carrots is greedy, or cunning, or obstinate," said
his mother, when she had heard all. "I cannot think that he understood
what he was doing when he took the half-sovereign."

"But the hiding it," said Captain Desart, "the hiding it, and yet to my
face persisting that he had never touched nurse's half-sovereign. I
can't make the child out."

"He says he didn't know nurse had any sovereigns," put in Floss.

"Are you there again, you ubiquitous child?" said her father.

Floss looked rather frightened--such a long word as ubiquitous must
surely mean something very naughty; but her father's voice was not
angry, so she took courage.

"Does he know what a sovereign means?" said Mrs. Desart. "Perhaps there
is some confusion in his mind which makes him seem obstinate when he
isn't so really."

"He said he knew _I_ had sovereigns," said Floss, "and I couldn't think
what he meant. Oh, mamma," she went on suddenly, "I do believe I know
what he was thinking of. It was my