"Oh, nothing, Sarah!" Jess replied sweetly. "I went up to the attic for a moment, and something fell while I was pulling it out. But there wasn't any damage done," she hastened on reassuringly, "and I put it right back!"
"I've warned ye to keep out of that attic!" grumbled Sarah, arranging the chocolate-cups. "Something always happens when ye go there. From now on, I think I'll be lockin' it up!"
"My gracious!" thought Margaret, boiling inwardly with impatience. "I do believe this is an adventure, at last! Will Sarah ever get out of this room so that I can hear all about it!"
CHAPTER III
THE DISCOVERY IN THE ATTIC
But Sarah continued to circulate around the little tea-table, clattering the cups, pouring the chocolate, and handing about the napkins and plates. And all the while she was scanning Margaret's new visitor with jealous and appraising eyes. Her ministrations seemed fairly interminable to the impatient four, and during the whole time that she was serving the refreshments not one of them uttered a word. So much of a contrast was this silence to their usual volubility, that she delivered this Parthian shot as she was at last taking her departure:
"Ye all seem mighty quiet, though ye were chatterin' hard enough when I come up! I'm thinkin' ye must have guilty consciences!"
When she had disappeared, Corinne spoke up: