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ry face, fell back a step in alarm. "What IS the matter, sister?" she ejaculated. Miss Minchin's voice was almost fierce when she answered: "Where is Sara Crewe?" Miss Amelia was bewildered. "Sara!" she stammered. "Why, she's with the children in your room, of course." "Has she a black frock in her sumptuous wardrobe?"--in bitter irony. "A black frock?" Miss Amelia stammered again. "A BLACK one?" "She has frocks of every other color. Has she a black one?" Miss Amelia began to turn pale. "No--ye-es!" she said. "But it is too short for her. She has only the old black velvet, and she has outgrown it." "Go and tell her to take off that preposterous pink silk gauze, and put the black one on, whether it is too short or not. She has done with finery!" Then Miss Amelia began to wring her fat hands and cry. "Oh, sister!" she sniffed. "Oh, sister! What CAN have happened?" Miss Minchin wasted no words. "Captain Crewe is dead," she said. "He has died without a penny. That spoiled, pampered, fanciful child is left a pauper on my hands." Miss Amelia sat down quite heavily in the nearest chair. "Hundreds of pounds have I spent on nonsense for her. And I shall never see a penny of it. Put a stop to this ridiculous party of hers. Go and make her change her frock at once." "I?" panted Miss Amelia. "M-must I go and tell her now?" "This moment!" was the fierce answer. "Don't sit staring like a goose. Go!" Poor Miss Amelia was accustomed to being called a goose. She knew, in fact, that she was rather a goose, and that it was left to geese to do a great many disagreeable things. It was a somewhat embarrassing thing to go into the midst of a room full of delighted children, and tell the giver of the feast that she had suddenly been transformed into a little beggar, and must go upstairs and put on an old black frock which was too small for her. But the thing must be done. This was evidently not the time when questions might be asked. She rubbed her eyes with her handkerchief until they looked quite red. After which she got up and went out of the room, without venturing to say another word. When her older sister looked and spoke as she had done just now, the wisest course to pursue was to obey orders without any comment. Miss Minchin walked across the room. She spoke to herself aloud without knowing that she was doing it. During the last year the story of the diamond mines had s
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