all about it yourself. That was what I was
longing for. I did so want my little girl to be true to her own honest
heart.'

"And then she went on to explain that she had known it all from the
first. She had not been asleep the day that I disobediently opened the
cupboard, at least she had wakened up in time to see what had happened,
and she had earnestly hoped that I would make up my mind to tell it
frankly. That was what had so disappointed her the next day when she had
quite thought I had come on purpose to tell it all. Then when my father
had come to consult her about the queer state I seemed to be in, she had
not felt surprised. She had quite understood it all, though she had not
said so to him, and she had resolved to try to win my confidence. She
told me too that she had found out from the old German about my buying
the cup, whose reappearance she could not at first explain.

"'I went to his shop the very next morning,' she told me, 'to see if he
still had the fellow to the cup I had bought, as I knew he had two of
them, and he told me the other had been bought by a little girl. Ten
shillings was too much to give for it, Nelly, a great deal too much for
you to give, and more than the cup was really worth. It was not a very
valuable cup, though the colour was so pretty that I was tempted to buy
it to place among the others.'

"'I don't mind about the money, grandmother,' I replied. 'I would have
given ever so much more if I had had it. You will keep the cup now?' I
added. 'You won't make me take it back to the old man? And oh,
grandmother, will you really forgive me?'

"She told me she had already done so, fully and freely, from the bottom
of her heart. And she said she would indeed keep the cup, as long as she
lived, and that if ever again I was tempted to distrust her I must look
at it and take courage. And she explained to me that even if there had
been reason for my fears, 'even if I had been a very harsh and severe
grandmother, your concealment would have done no good in the end,' she
said. 'It would have been like the first little tiny seed of deceit,
which might have grown into a great tree of evil, poisoning all your
life. Oh, Nelly, never _never_ plant that seed, for once it has taken
root who can say how difficult it may be to tear it up?'

"I listened with all my attention; I could not help being deeply
impressed with her earnestness, and I was so grateful for her kindness
that her advice found good