And “Is it a joke?” “What is the point?” and “How do you know?” from the rest.
Uncle Arthur waited a moment until the flurry was past. Then he said in a very serious voice and one that was not at all trifling: “I mean, simply, that Miss Angeline Montague is very pretty to look at and that her manners are charming and that it is the greatest of pities that she is not so nice a little girl as she appears to be, but the truth is—I hate to say it—but the truth is——”
“Well, what? Do hurry, please!” urged Aunt Laura.
Miss Cissy drew something out of her handkerchief, and held it in her outstretched palm for them all to see. It was one of Aunt Edith’s pretty chocolate cups broken into fragments.
“Poor little Angeline did it,” she explained sadly. “No one but Uncle Arthur saw the accident and there would have been no great harm done if Angeline had not turned coward and tried to place the blame on some one else. Uncle Arthur watched her closely and saw her slip Polly’s cup off its saucer and put it upon her own. You see, her idea was to have the blame laid on Polly if the accident were discovered and her plan would have succeeded if it had not been for Uncle Arthur, for James missed the cup at once and came and told me that it was gone from the saucer of the little girl I had brought. I was glad to be able to say she was not responsible for it and that Mr. Hamilton knew who was.”
Tears were in Miss Cissy’s eyes as she finished, and Uncle Arthur looked so grieved that Aunt Laura rose and went to him to give his arm a comforting pat. She knew that honorable people never “tell on” other people unless they must and when they have to, it hurts them sadly, so she felt very sorry for Uncle Arthur and for Miss Cicely too, and last and most of all, for Angeline.
So that was how it came about that when the choice of Priscilla’s playmate was put to vote Polly was “unanimously elected.”
“The first’s the worst,
The second’s the same;