'Ah!' said Wilmet; 'didn't I see the shade of the lamp in the landing-place broken? How was that?'
'Oh! the children, of course,' said Alda.
But neither child spoke; and Wilmet perceived that only the twins were in the room, both hanging upon her, while she swallowed her hurried second breakfast.
'No one will tell,' said Clement. 'It was done the day I went over to Minsterham. I did all I could to find out.'
'Yes; and made them more obstinate than before,' said Alda.
Another catastrophe here suddenly struck Wilmet, namely, a long and very badly-mended rent in Stella's spotted pink frock, which, to say the truth, did not look as if it were Monday morning.
'Yes,' said Stella, 'I did try to mend it as well as I could, Sister, but there wasn't another work-a-day frock clean.'
'Your mending!' exclaimed Wilmet; 'but how did you tear it?'
'When I tumbled into the brambles, and was lost.'
'Lost, my dear? What does she mean?'