Grandma spoke in a tone of awful sternness, and her expression was, if possible, even sterner than her voice. The four little culprits stood before her in a row, and trembled, but nobody could think of anything to say. It was half-past three, and the children had reached home five minutes earlier, and been sent straight up to Grandma’s room by Mary, in obedience to the orders she had received. It was Mary who had met the party at the station, and on the way home had told them of the excitement and consternation their disappearance had caused. “I never saw the old lady so upset before,” she declared. “She most took Bridget’s and my head off, and goodness knows we hadn’t anything to do with it. She read that letter you left on the bureau, and she thought we’d told you the news about the stepmother, that was to be kept a secret till your pa came home. She telegraphed to Miss Kate to come home, and she was ’most wild with fright about you, till that lady’s message came.” It was all very dreadful, and yet there was a certain thrill in the knowledge that Grandma had really been worried about them. “I didn’t think she’d care much what became of us,” Dulcie had whispered to Daisy, and Daisy had answered, with her usual cheerfulness: “It’s rather nice to know she does care just a little bit, after all.” And now they were facing Grandma’s wrath, and awaiting the punishment which they felt sure was to follow. “I cannot conceive how such an absurd idea ever entered any of your heads,” Mrs. Winslow went on, eyeing them over her spectacles. “For children in your position even to contemplate such a plan is outrageous. A Winslow taking a situation like an Irish servant girl. It is horrible!” And the aristocratic old lady actually shuddered. Dulcie hung her head; her cheeks were crimson. “It was all my fault,” she said, humbly; “I thought of it first, and the others didn’t want to do it at all.” “I was quite sure you were the ringleader,” returned Grandma, coldly. “You generally are, where any mischief is concerned. But Daisy and Molly are both old enough to know better. Maud is still too young to be expected to have judgment of any kind.” It was then that Maud did what Dulcie afterwards described as “a noble thing.” She had been trying to hide behind Daisy, but at Grandma’s last words she suddenly stepped forward and spoke. “If the others are going to be punished,” she said, in a clear, decided little voice, “I guess you’d better punish me, too. I knew it was naughty to eat cake for breakfast, and I did it even when Daisy told me not to.” There was a little gasp of admiration from the three older children, and even Grandma’s stern face relaxed into something like a grim smile.