"I used to be," sighed Alice. "Now I know better. I came to realize that Tommy was taking advantage of my love for him—and he's got to learn better than that."
"Isn't he a scamp?" whispered Dorothy.
In a few moments, after silence from the "chamber of torture," the shrill voice cried again:
"Sis! I've found the matches an' I'm a-goin' to set fire to the curtains—now you see!"
The twins gazed upon the calm face of Alice with wide-open eyes. Alice went on talking without showing the first signs of fear that Master Tommy would keep his pledge. She was resting after a hard day's work, and she enjoyed having her old schoolmates drop in to see her.
After further silence, the boy's shrill voice took up the cry again:
"Sis! don't you smell sumfin burnin'?"
"I do believe I smell something burning—cloth, or something," whispered the nervous Dorothy, sniffing.
"It's an old black rag I put in the kitchen fire, without opening the damper," said Alice, coolly.
"Suppose he has got the matches?" demanded Dora.