"It's gone," cried Bee with a sob. "It's gone. What will father think? And the door! The door is still open."
She ran back to the house as fast as she could. Panting and breathless, hot and tired, she clambered through the window into the study.
"Beatrice." Doctor Raymond stood by the open door of the laboratory, his face very grave. "Why is this door open? I might lose a very valuable specimen through such carelessness."
"Oh, father!" cried Bee, bursting into tears. "I have lost a valuable specimen already. I have lost your Teinopalpus Imperialis. I left the door open to go in to put the sorrel grass in the cage for some larvæ, and it flew out. Father, father, I—"
Chapter XIX
The Closed Door
"When cometh the close of a cherished thing,
How keenly our heart to its charm doth cling,
For it seems as sunshine vanishing."
—Pall Mall Gazette.