else we wouldn't
think of keeping you up so late. In the first place, wasn't it perfectly
delightful?"

"Grand!" sighed the others.

"Everything except that one accident, and the thing that caused it,"
answered Grace.

"By the way, Anne, where is the doll?" asked Jessica.

Anne produced it from its box.

"Here it is," she said sadly. "But it was a cruel joke. Can you imagine
who could have done it?"

"I have several suspicions," answered Grace, "but I make no accusations
without grounds."

The four girls examined the doll carefully.

"My poor father!" exclaimed Anne, her eyes filling with tears.

"I'll tell you what, girls," cried Nora suddenly, "there's more to this
than just Anne's secret. How did anyone know we were going to have a
marionette show? Didn't we keep it dark?"

"Yes," they answered.

"Perhaps it got out through the servants," suggested Jessica.

"It certainly is rather an underhanded business," cried Grace, "for
whoever did this not only must have bribed one of Mrs. Gray's servants,
but also must have some way or other raked up Anne's secret. It was
evidently some one who had a grudge against you, poor dear," she added,
patting Anne on the cheek.

"Girls!" exclaimed Jessica, who all this time had been looking the doll
over carefully, "where have you seen this material before?" She pointed
at the fancy red waistcoat the doll was wearing.

"It has a familiar look," answered Nora.

"It looks to me very much like a red velveteen suit I saw somewhere once
upon a time," observed Grace.

"You did see it, Grace. But it was--how long ago? Two or more years,
wasn't it?"

"I know," cried Nora. "Miriam Nesbit's!"

"Sh-h-h!" warned Grace. "Remember David. He's just across the hall."

"And he must never know," added Anne, "not if she sent me a dozen
dolls."

"But I haven't finished," continued Jessica. "I feel exactly like a
detective on the scent. This doll is wearing something else that is
familiar to us all. Anne, you have seen it, I am sure."

They scanned the doll eagerly. The shabby black suit was made of some
indescribable material that might have come from anywhere. The red
velveteen waistcoat they had already identified. Then came a little
white cotton dickey, with a high standing collar and then----

"The tie!" cried Nora. "The green tie! Is that it, Jessica?"

"You are right," answered Jessica. "Have you never seen that green silk
before?"

Grace was in a brown study.

Ann