"No," said Miss Middleton, "we have not."
"But we still have our suspicious," interposed Miss Joanna.
"And what are they?"
"We did think that it was either Arthur or Theodora. Now we are convinced that it was Arthur, and that our niece, from a mistaken feeling of honor, helped him to hide it. Nothing can change us in this opinion."
"I have come to tell you," said Mrs. Hoyt, quietly but with great firmness, "that Mr. Hoyt and I are perfectly convinced that Arthur did not do it. The evidence is very strong against him, we admit, but he has always been a truthful boy, and we feel very sure that he is so still. The child has been made so unhappy by the affair that I felt it necessary to bring him here, and let him hear me tell you that his father and I do not think he did it."
She rose to go in the pause that followed this speech. The sisters were silent until they also had risen, and then Miss Joanna spoke.
"Our opinion is unchanged," said she, "and always will be."
At this moment the parlor door flew open and Theodora ran into the room.
"I have just met the postman," she cried, "and he gave me this letter! Look at it!" and she held it up for her aunts' inspection.
The envelope was exceedingly soiled, and the stamp was placed upside down on the lower left-hand corner. It was addressed to "miss tedy middleton."