"Come!" she whispered. "Thomasine, the-- My dear sister, be prepared! a cruel blow!" "What do you mean, Melissa?" cried Miss Thomasine, her nerves quite unstrung by the performance in which she had so recently taken part, and also by her late altercation, if so it could be called, with her niece. "Come!" repeated Miss Melissa, and her sister went into the drawing-room, almost expecting to find that there had been a death in the family. Theodora ran up stairs. "They have found it out! they have found it out!" she thought, and flying to her room she closed and bolted the door. Ten minutes later her name was called from without. "Miss Theodora, are you there?" It was Mary Ann, one of the maids. Teddy did not speak nor move. "Miss Theodora," said Mary Ann again, tapping at the door and rattling the handle as she spoke. "I think, miss, you had better let me in. Your aunts want to speak to you." Slowly Teddy rose from the bed, where she had flung herself, and reluctantly opened the door. Her dark hair, which was cut short across her forehead and hung in a wavy mass behind, looked sadly dishevelled, and her face showed unmistakably that she had been crying. "What do they want me for?" she asked. "A terrible thing has happened, miss," replied Mary Ann, in an awed whisper; "the Middleton bowl is broke--the Middleton bowl as was worth hundreds of dollars, I've heard tell, that folks has been comin' from all over the country to see ever since I've lived here, and that's goin' on fifteen years." "But why do they want me?" asked Theodora, showing no surprise when told of the calamity, as Mary Ann noted. "Because, miss, _some_body has broke it, and as it ain't one of the ladies themselves, it must have been either you or some of the help. So, miss, if 'twas you and you don't tell it, some of us has got to suffer." "Mary Ann," said Teddy, stopping short at the stairs, "must I really go down? Can't I run away? Won't you help me to run away, Mary Ann? I'll give you something nice if you will." "La, miss, don't talk and look so wild! You just tell 'em you did it quite accidental, and they'll forgive you. The Miss Middletons is real ladies, and they won't scold, but they'll take it awful hard if you try to deceive 'em. Just tell 'em you did it." "I can't possibly do that. Oh, Mary Ann, I wish I were in South America with my father and mother!" She had reached the parlor door by this time, and there she paused. Presently, summoning all her courage, she pushed it open and entered. "Poor little miss!" said Mary Ann to herself. "Of course she did it, and I'm real sorry for her." And then she went off to the kitchen to tell the other frightened servants that there was no doubt as to who was guilty.