"No, I can't tell you who did," she said. "But do you believe me now, Aunt Tom?"
"Yes, my dear, I do."
And then Theodora burst into tears, and hid her face in her aunt's lap.
"IT WAS SO TERRIBLE TO FEEL THAT NO ONE BELIEVED ME," SHE SOBBED.
"Oh, I am so glad!" she sobbed. "It was so terrible to feel that no one believed me in this whole house."
After a while Miss Thomasine returned to her sisters, and told them of her change of opinion. Needless to say no one agreed with her, and it required some determination on her part to remain firm in her conviction. It was not so easy to believe her niece guiltless when she was confronted by four somewhat obstinate ladies, as it had been when she was looking into Theodora's fearlessly truthful eyes.
But Miss Thomasine did not falter, and she finally succeeded in obtaining her sisters' consent to the proposition that their niece should be released from solitary confinement, and allowed to go out into the fresh air.
"For she is not accustomed to it, and I am afraid it will make her ill," urged Miss Thomasine, "and then what would Theodore and sister Gertrude say?"
At hearing which the others relented.