"Yes, it stood there," continued Miss Middleton, "and at ten o'clock this morning it was still there, for I saw it myself. At a quarter past eleven, when your aunt Joanna came down to dust the parlor, the Middleton bowl was gone! Not a trace of it left but this small piece of china to show that it had ever been there."
Theodora glanced up again, and saw a triangular bit of china, an inch or two long, which her aunt held in her hand and then laid upon the table.
"You know the value of that bowl. You have been told that your great-grandfather brought it home, and that there is said to be but one like it in the world. Now that other is the only one. The Middleton bowl is no more."
She paused, and her sisters, more than one of them, sobbed audibly. Miss Middleton, Miss Joanna, and Theodora herself alone were dry-eyed.
"Have you anything to say for yourself?" asked Miss Middleton, for the third time.
And again Theodora replied, "No, Aunt Adaline."
Miss Middleton's foot moved impatiently. "You must say something, Theodora. In plain words, did you break the bowl?" There was no answer. "Very well. You would have saved yourself in our esteem if you had confessed at once that you broke it, and that it was an accident, as I suppose it was. We should have forgiven you, great as the loss is. Now you are attempting to hide it. I am only thankful that you are not actually denying the fact, but I suppose you realize that it would be useless. The evidence is too strong against you."
"Oh, sister!" murmured Miss Thomasine. "I almost wish I had not told you; but you took me so by surprise that the words came right out before I knew it. Poor little Teddy! I am sure she did not mean to break it."
"I beg you will not call her by that ridiculous boy's name, Thomasine!" interrupted Miss Joanna. "And you are doing your best to encourage her to keep silence. I think you and sister Adaline are entirely too lenient. If I had _my_ way, I should soon force her to confess."
Teddy, who had almost cried while her aunt Thomasine was speaking, now raised her head and gazed defiantly at Miss Joanna. "_I did not break the bowl_," she said, in a loud, clear voice.
"Oh, Theodora!" exclaimed the five aunts, in a chorus of dismay.