"I do!" said Emily emphatically. "I will never touch another bit as long as I live, unless I lose my senses first!"
Emily's energy raised a laugh, in which she herself joined. Two or three of the girls had remarked how much she had laughed that day.
"I don't say as much as that," said Annette, when the merriment had subsided. "I dare say I shall like it as well as ever after a while, and so will you."
"Never!" returned Emily. She spoke with an energy and bitterness which made the girls look at her with surprise.
And Bella said, "I am sure, Emily, you have no reason to be dissatisfied. You work better than any of us, and those of your presents that I have seen are almost the prettiest of all. You must have spent a good deal of money, as well as time, upon them."
Emily winced almost as if some one had struck her, but she made no reply.
"Isn't it a pity that Kitty won't be able to come down?" said Annette, after a moment's silence. "She has thought so much about it, and worked so hard."
"Cannot she come down?" asked some one.
"Oh, no! I saw Mrs. Pomeroy after dinner, and she told me that Kitty could not even sit up long enough to mark her presents. Lucy is doing it for her. Well I know one thing! I should not like to be the person that got her money!"
"There it is again, Manny?" said Emily sharply. "You are always harping on that string. I thought we all agreed to believe that the money was not stolen, but lost by accident. The next we know, you will be accusing some one of having taken it."