And she had, besides, a cause of considerable anxiety. Putting her hand into an inside pocket to find a pencil, her fingers encountered something hard, which her touch did not recognize. She drew it out, and there was the little working equipage she had found in the book-case drawer. She had taken it almost without thought, only considering that the scissors and bodkin would be convenient to use; but as she looked at it she saw that the little bottle, which still smelled of otto of roses, had a gold or gilded stopper, and that all the handles of the implements were the same. The whole was evidently of considerable value. Nor was that all. As Calista looked at it, she remembered the pile of books and magazines she had intended to take to her room, and which she had left lying on the floor by the book-case. Then, too, there was the broken lock to her grandfather's room She did not know whether Aunt Priscilla ever went thither, but if she did, she would be sure to see that some one had been meddling. She would suspect Calista, of course, as she always did suspect her of any mischief that was done in the house. "Well, if she does, I must just tell her the truth, whatever comes," thought Calista. "After all, where was the harm? She never told me not to go there." Calista still held the case in her hand when the recess bell struck, and she was roused from her reverie by hearing Antoinette, say,— "Oh, Calista, what a pretty case! Where did you get it? Let me see it, won't you?" "It is not mine," said Calista, holding it out for inspection. "I did not know I had it with me." "Did your aunt lend it to you? How curious it is! Do you suppose those handles are gold? Let me take it, won't you?" "No, I can't; I told you it was not mine," and Calista put out her hand for the box. "But you can just lend it to me for a day or two. Come, do. I am going over to Graywich to spend Sunday, and it would be so nice to carry. Come, do." "I tell you it is not mine," answered Calista; the more angrily because she was vexed with herself. "Give it to me this minute." "Take it, then," said Antoinette, as angrily as herself. "For my part, I would not carry about such valuable things belonging to other people. Would you, Miss Meeks?" Now, Antoinette had succeeded in getting on the favorable side of Miss Meeks—an operation which she had never performed with Miss McPherson. Moreover, Miss Meeks did not like Calista, who was somewhat opinionated, and had a way of asking questions and wishing to go to the bottom of things, not always agreeable or convenient to Miss Meeks. Therefore, when appealed to in this way, by Antoinette, she was quite ready to take up on her side. "What do you say, Antoinette?" "I say that, if I were Calista, I would not carry about a valuable gold-mounted working-case belonging to somebody else."