he carpet, and his
body some distance off. Hopelessly broken, a ruined mandarin, he would
never nod any more!

For a minute the little girls gazed speechlessly at the wreck; there was
silence in the room, except for the steady tick-tack of the clock. Then
Ethelwyn turned a terrified face towards her friend.

"Oh, Pennie!" she cried, "what _shall_ I do?" for she was really afraid
of Miss Unity.

Pennie rose, picked up the mandarin's head, and looked at it
sorrowfully.

"Mother _told_ us not to touch the china," she said.

"But can't we do anything?" exclaimed Ethelwyn wildly; "couldn't we
stick it on? He's not broken anywhere else. See, Pennie!"

She put the mandarin on the mantel-piece and carefully balanced the
broken head on his shoulders.

"He looks as well as ever," she said; "no one would guess he was
broken."

"But he _is_," replied Pennie; "and even if he _can_ be mended I don't
suppose he'll ever nod like he used to."

"Are you going to _tell_ her we broke him?" asked Ethelwyn after a short
pause.

Pennie stared.

"_We_ didn't break him," she said; "it was you, and _of course_ you'll
tell her."

"That I sha'n't," said Ethelwyn sulkily; "and if you do, you'll be a
sneak."

"But you'll _have_ to say," continued Pennie, "because directly he's
touched his head will come off, and then Miss Unity will ask us."

"Well, I shall wait till she finds out," said Ethelwyn, "and if you tell
her before I'll never never speak to you again, and I won't have you for
my friend any longer."

"I'm not going to tell," said Pennie, drawing herself up proudly,
"unless she asks me straight out. But I _know_ you ought to."

As she spoke a step sounded in the passage, and with one bound Ethelwyn
regained her old place in the window-seat and turned her head away.

Pennie remained standing by the fire, with a startled guilty look and a
little perplexed frown on her brow.

Miss Unity's glance fell on her directly she entered; but her mind was
occupied with the cares of preserving, and though she saw that the child
looked troubled she said nothing at first.

"If Ethelwyn would _only_ tell," thought Pennie, and there was such
yearning anxiety in her face as she watched Miss Unity's movements that
presently the old lady observed it, and looked curiously at her through
her spectacles.

"Do you want anything, Penelope?" she asked, and as she spoke she
stretched out her hand to the mantel-piece, for the mandarin wa