"Joy would not have read 'Lady Isabella's Treachery.' She thought it very wrong of me to lend it to Celia; she did not like her reading it a bit—she was quite unhappy about it—and I know now she was right. I've been very unhappy about it, too, since; and this morning when I heard how the fire had broken out I told father how Celia and I used to sit up reading when she was staying with me, and he was so angry, and said I was greatly to blame. And that's why I've come here to tell you that I was 'at the root of the mischief,' as father said, and that I'm a very wicked, deceitful girl." Here Lulu drew a lace-edged handkerchief from her pocket, and wiped away two scalding tears which were running down her dusty cheeks. "If I had never lent Celia 'Lady Isabella's Treachery' she would never have liked novels of that sort, and she wouldn't have sat up reading, and the east wing wouldn't have been burnt down," she concluded, dolefully. Sir Jasper made no response. He had covered his eyes with a shaking hand; but after a brief silence he looked at Lulu again, and saw that her tear-stained, freckled face wore the stamp of truth. So Celia had kept deliberate silence, and allowed him to misjudge her sister and treat her most unfairly, he reflected wrathfully. She had wilfully deceived him. "What is the real object of your visit, child?" he asked, presently. "I came to ask you not to be too hard on poor Celia, and—" "Poor Celia, indeed!" he interposed, bitterly. "What consideration has she shown for her sister? She allowed me to treat Joy as—as I am ashamed to remember I treated her, now! She knew the mistake I had made! Tell me," he cried, a sudden suspicion crossing his mind— "you appear to be in her confidence—tell me, was it Celia and not Joy who meddled with the butterfly brooch—" "The butterfly brooch!" Lulu echoed, growing crimson, and beginning to stutter. "I— I thought, that is, I—she told me she had put it back!" "Put it back!" he almost screamed in his excitement. "Yes, she did! But—" He paused as the door opened, and Mrs. Wallis, followed by Celia herself, entered the room. Lulu, frightened at the admission she had made, burst into a flood of tears and covered her face with her hands, utterly overcome with alarm at the situation in which she had placed herself. Sir Jasper struggled for composure, and with his stern glance upon Celia, pointed to the weeping girl. "She came to plead for you," he said, sarcastically, "but I should like to hear what you have to say for yourself."