"Oh, Maggie!" she said reproachfully. "How could you! But, still more, how could you deny it so often?"
Maggie looked at her bewilderedly, then meeting the stern reproach in her sister's eyes, hid her face in the bed-clothes while she murmured something about not having remembered before.
"Hush!" said Eleanor, "don't make things worse by false excuses."
"Make her tell all about it," whispered Patty.
"No," said Eleanor; "it would only tempt her to invent palliations. It is miserable enough—I don't want to hear any more."
What "palliations" were, to Patty was by no means clear.
"At least," she persisted, "you might ask her what she did with the box."
Maggie caught the words.
"I didn't touch the box," she said, "only the goodies."
"Oh, what a story!" exclaimed the twins.