where we had put in the
extras. Then the crowd closed up thick, and we heard excited talk and we
knew we really HAD sold the Antiquities this time.

Presently the bonnets and coats began to spread out and trickle towards
the house and we were aware that all would soon be over. So we cut home
the back way, just in time to hear the President saying to Albert's
uncle--

'A genuine find--most interesting. Oh, really, you ought to have ONE.
Well, if you insist--'

And so, by slow and dull degrees, the thick sprinkling of Antiquities
melted off the lawn; the party was over, and only the dirty teacups and
plates, and the trampled grass and the pleasures of memory were left.

We had a very beautiful supper--out of doors, too--with jam sandwiches
and cakes and things that were over; and as we watched the setting
monarch of the skies--I mean the sun--Alice said--

'Let's tell.'

We let the Dentist tell, because it was he who hatched the lark, but we
helped him a little in the narrating of the fell plot, because he has
yet to learn how to tell a story straight from the beginning.

When he had done, and we had done, Albert's uncle said, 'Well, it
amused you; and you'll be glad to learn that it amused your friends the
Antiquities.'

'Didn't they think they were Roman?' Daisy said; 'they did in The Daisy
Chain.'

'Not in the least,' said Albert's uncle; 'but the Treasurer and
Secretary were charmed by your ingenious preparations for their
reception.'

'We didn't want them to be disappointed,' said Dora.

'They weren't,' said Albert's uncle. 'Steady on with those plums, H.O. A
little way beyond the treasure you had prepared for them they found two
specimens of REAL Roman pottery which sent every man-jack of them home
thanking his stars he had been born a happy little Antiquary child.'

'Those were our jugs,' said Alice, 'and we really HAVE sold the
Antiquities. She unfolded the tale about our getting the jugs and
burying them in the moonlight, and the mound; and the others listened
with deeply respectful interest. 'We really have done it this time,
haven't we?' she added in tones of well-deserved triumph.

But Oswald had noticed a queer look about Albert's uncle from almost the
beginning of Alice's recital; and he now had the sensation of something
being up, which has on other occasions frozen his noble blood. The
silence of Albert's uncle now froze it yet more Arcticly.

'Haven't we?' repeated Alice, unconscious of