Mott did as he was told. He ran to the nursery and back as fast as he could; but, unobserved by him, Floss managed to run after him and crept into the study so quietly that her father never noticed her. Maurice laid the old paint-box and the half-sovereign down on the table in front of his father; Captain Desart held up the little coin between his finger and thumb. "Now," he said, "Carrots, look at this. Did you or did you not take this piece of money out of nurse's drawer and hide it away in your paint-box?" Carrots stared hard at the half-sovereign. "I did put it in my paint-box," he said, and then he stopped. "What for?" said his father. "I wanted to keep it for a secret," he replied. "I wanted to--to--" "_What?_" thundered Captain Desart. "To buy something at the toy-shop with it," sobbed Carrots. Captain Desart sat down and looked at Mott for sympathy. "Upon my soul," he said, "one could hardly believe it. A child that one would think scarcely knew the value of money! Where can he have learnt such cunning; you say you are sure he was told of nurse's having lost a half-sovereign?" "Oh, yes," said Mott; "he confesses to that much himself." "Floss told me," said Carrots. "Then how can you pretend you didn't know this was nurse's--taking it out of her drawer, too," said his father. "I don't know. I didn't take it out of her drawer; it was 'aside Floss's doll," said Carrots. "He's trying to equivocate," said his father. Then he turned to the child again, looking more determined than ever. "Carrots," he said, "I must whip you for this. Do you know that I am ashamed to think you are my son? If you were a poor boy you might be put in prison for this." Carrots looked too bewildered to understand. "In prison," he repeated. "Would the prison-man take me?" "What does he mean?" said Captain Desart. Floss, who had been waiting unobserved in her corner all this time, thought this a good opportunity for coming forward. "He means the policeman," she said. "Oh, papa," she went on, running up to her little brother and throwing her arms round him, the tears streaming down her face, "oh, papa, poor little Carrots! he _doesn't_ understand." "Where did _you_ come from?" said her father, gruffly but not unkindly, for Floss was rather a favourite of his. "What do you mean about his not understanding? Did you know about this business, Floss?" "Oh no, papa," said Floss, her face flushing; "I'm too big not to understand." "Of course you are," said Captain Desart; "and Carrots is big enough, too, to understand the very plain rule that he is not to touch what does not belong to him. He was told, too, that nurse had lost a half-sovereign, and he might then have owned to having taken it and given it back, and then things would not have looked so bad. Take him up to my dressing-room, Maurice, and leave him there till I come." "May I go with him, papa?" said Floss very timidly. "No," said her father, "you may not."