"I suppose you'll have to keep still, unless you're actually accused of taking it. You can't very well tell on Alicia."
"That's what I think."
"But if they really accuse you,—and Mr. Fenn has already done so."
"Oh, Fenn! I don't care what he says. If Mr. Forbes doesn't think I took it, I don't want to say anything about Alicia."
"Well, let's wait and see. After what you've just told me, I think she did take it. But I don't WANT to think that."
Now, in the next room, Alicia and Bernice were talking confidentially and in low tones.
"Of course, Dolly must have taken it," Alicia said, slowly.
"I can't believe that," said Bernice. "I know Dolly Fayre awfully well, and I just about 'most KNOW she couldn't do such a thing."
"I daresay she never was tempted before. You can't tell what you may do until there's a sudden temptation. She might have thought it was no harm, when Uncle Jeff has so many of such trinkets. She might have thought he'd never miss it—"
"No," dissented Bernice. "Dolly never thought out those things. If she did take it, it was just on the spur of the moment, and, as you say, because of a sudden irresistible temptation. And the minute after she was doubtless sorry, but then she was ashamed to confess or return it."