They routed out queer nests of broken
curiosities, disturbed old dusty dens of rubbish, peeped behind every
row of books; but made no discovery worth mentioning, except the left
leg of Annie's last doll, the stuffing of Johnnie's ball, the tiger
out of George's Noah's ark, and the first sheet of Sam's Latin
Grammar, all stuffed together into a mouse-hole in the skirting.
At dinner Christabel forbade the subject to be mentioned, not only to
hinder quarrelsome speeches, but to prevent the loss being talked of
among the servants; since she feared that one of them must have
committed the theft, and though anxious not to put it into the
children's heads, suspected Rhoda, the little nursery-girl, who was
quite a child, and had not long been in the house.
Henry ate his dinner in haste, but could not get away till Miss
Fosbrook had called him away from the rest, and told him that if he
had been playing a trick on his little brother, it was time to put an
end to it, before any innocent person fell under suspicion.
"I--I've been playing no tricks--at least--"
"Without any AT LEAST, Henry, have you hidden the money?"
"No.
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