Two by two they went, Theodora and her aunt Thomasine in front, the other aunts behind, down the very path over which had passed that delightful funeral procession so short a time before.
"I wish I were that kitten!" thought Teddy, miserably. "I would rather be stoned than this! I suppose there is no way out of it. I've got to show them where I hid the pieces. If I only hadn't left that little bit which I never saw at all, they would have thought the bowl was stolen. They never would have dreamed of my breaking it. How foolish I was!"
One of the Hoyt boys, looking over the wall, saw the approach of the Middleton ladies, and summoning all his brothers who were available, they leaned upon the wall and watched the proceedings with intense interest. Arthur alone, when he saw them coming, dropped the rake which he had been using and fled toward the barn.
"She's only a girl, after all," he said to himself, indignantly. "She can't keep it dark. I told her they'd never guess it if she only held her tongue, and now she has given it away!"
Then his curiosity as to what would happen next overcame his apparent desire for flight, and he returned to his brothers on the garden wall, from the top of which could be had a fine view of the Misses Middletons' currant-bushes. When he arrived at this point of vantage he found that the ladies had reached the object of their walk, and that they stood in a row upon the path.
"Now," said Miss Joanna, with sarcasm—"now we shall see whether Thomasine was mistaken or not!"
She closed her sunshade with a vicious snap, and proceeded to poke with it under the bushes. Theodora watched her for a moment in silence.
"You needn't do that, Aunt Joanna," she said; and walking to a little distance, she stooped and thrust her hand into the mass of green weeds and dead leaves which had accumulated there. Almost immediately she drew forth two pieces of broken china. "Here they are," she said.
Miss Middleton took one piece and Miss Joanna the other. Without a word they turned toward home. Miss Melissa and Miss Dorcas followed, and then Miss Thomasine, holding Theodora by the hand, fell into line behind. They walked away as slowly as they had come.