"Come up and see for yourself. Nurse will tell you," said the twins, too eagerly indignant to notice or pity their sister's distress; and Eleanor followed their advice.
The charge seemed sadly well founded. Nurse described the position of the boxes.
"Up on the high chest of drawers, where none of the littler ones than Miss Maggie could climb," she said. Flop's was empty, Towzer's still half full, when they went out that afternoon, and nurse returning unexpectedly, had caught sight of Maggie running out of the night nursery—"where she had no business to be. I had told her to stay in the other room by the fire, and there's nothing of hers in there; for you know, miss, she sleeps in Miss Patty's room."
"And what reason did she give for being there?"
"She got very red, miss, and at first wouldn't say anything; but I saw she had been clambering up—a chair was dragged out of its place—and so then she said it was to stretch out of the window to gather some of the ivy leaves to ornament her goodies. And I was that silly, I believed her," said nurse, with considerable self-disgust.
"You didn't look at the bon-bons then?"
"Never thought of them, miss, till we came in, and the little ones asked for some, and I reached up and found only the one box, and that empty."
"And you've looked all about? You're sure it hasn't fallen down?"
"Oh dear, no! Of course I looked everywhere. Besides, I saw Miss Maggie after something in there," said nurse conclusively, "and my parasol that always lies on the drawers was on the floor when I came in."
"Maggie," said Eleanor, "do you hear that? You must have climbed up to the drawers."