"But I don't understand," said Dotty, looking puzzled. "You motioned for me not to speak a word, so I didn't. But what does it mean? Who put that piece in Tod's cap, his mother?"
"No; Pauline did it! She sneaked those caps away to her room last night, and sat up till all hours piecing those pieces in. And a sweet job she must have had of it! Why, it's about as much trouble to piece a thing like that, as to make a whole cap!"
"Pauline did it?" still Dotty couldn't understand. "Why, she said this evening that the caps were all right and big enough."
"Of course they were, after she pieced the bands out longer! She did it herself, Dotty, and then pretended to us that they were just as we had left them. At least she meant us to think that, for she said, 'Now don't you see they're all right?' and she didn't tell us she had fixed them."
"How do you know she did it? Maybe Mrs. Brown or Liza did it."
"Carroll told me Polly did it herself. After she went to her room last night. He says her light was burning awful late because she had to fix the three caps."
"The deceitful girl! If that isn't the limit! Just wait till I see her, I'll tell her what I think of her!"
"Now, Dotty, that's just what I don't want you to do. I knew how you'd feel about this thing, and honest, at first I thought I wouldn't tell you, 'cause if I hadn't, you never would have known. But we never do have secrets from each other, and so when I found it out, I thought I ought to tell you. But I don't want you to quarrel with Pauline about it. Won't you let it go, Dot, and never say anything to her on the subject?"
"No, I won't, Dolly. She told a story, or if she didn't tell it right out, she made us think what wasn't true, and it's just the same. She ought to be shown up. Tod and Tad and her own brother, too, ought to know what a mean thing she did. It's only justice, Dolly, that they should. You're so easy-going you'd forgive anything and forget it, too! But I can't. I've got to tell that Clifton girl what I think of her. Oh, I never heard of such meanness! Why Dollyrinda Fayre,—you or I would scorn to do such a thing!"
"Of course we would, Dot, but I don't know as it's up to us to tell Pauline Clifton what she ought to do."