"Do you mean the bicycle?" asked Miss Thomasine, courageously uttering the obnoxious word.
Miss Melissa nodded.
"Oh, it could not be!" said Miss Dorcas.
"Certainly not!" exclaimed Miss Thomasine. "The child is somewhere in the house, and we must look for her."
They investigated the rooms on the second floor with no success, and then they descended the broad stairs, one behind the other, each clad in a flowered dressing-gown and enveloped in a worsted shawl, and each one carrying a lighted candle in a tall silver candlestick.
Over their heads, shorn of the additional braids which adorned them by day, and in no state to be seen by the doctor or even by the servants, each sister had tied a white knit "cloud." Even Miss Melissa, when she removed her bonnet after her futile attempt to summon the doctor, had again adjusted her cloud.
And now they crept down their own staircase feeling strangely ill at ease. Never before had they been downstairs at this hour and in this costume, but Theodora must be found.
THEODORA LAY ON THE SOFA ASLEEP.
The parlor door stood open at the foot of the stairs. It was dark there now, for the moon had set and it was not yet dawn. The three ladies gathered at the threshold, and holding their candles on high, peered into the room. There, on the sofa, lay Theodora, one arm hanging over the side, the other tossed above her head. As the aunts drew nearer she moved a little, and murmured in her sleep: "Of course I believe you. It's dreadful not to be believed."