"What do you mean?" cried Azalea, angrily.
"Just what I say. To the work on the sampler, you added a bit more,—or rather, you subtracted some!"
CHAPTER XII
AZALEA'S CHANCE
"What do you mean by subtracted some?"
"Now, Azalea, there's no use in your acting like that! You know perfectly well you can't fool me! If you really want to know what I mean, I'll tell you. I mean that you picked out two stitches from the eight to make it look like a six. Didn't you, now?"
"Oh, well, if you've discovered that, I may as well own up. Yes, I did."
"And aren't you ashamed of yourself? Don't you think such a deception a wrong and contemptible thing to do?"
"Oh, pshaw, it was only for a joke. Can't you take a joke, Elise?"
"It wasn't only for a joke. You hoped you would make me think the sampler two hundred years older than it really is! And you thought that would make it much more valuable. Well, you overreached yourself! There were no samplers made—so far as is known—in 1636. So your trick wouldn't fool anybody!"