ly girl! In that cupboard, of course. I am getting
tidy. You know I would do anything I possibly could to please Aunt Sophy.
I can't do big things to please her--I never shall be able to--so I do
little things. I am so tidy that I am spick-and-span. I hate and loathe
it; but I wouldn't leave a pin about for anything. You open that door and
look for yourself. Do you see my skirts?"

Verena got off the bed and opened the cupboard door. Pauline had about
half-a-dozen skirts, and they all hung neatly on their respective hooks.
Amongst them was the thick blue serge which she had worn on the day when
she had gone to the White Bay. Verena felt her heart beating fast. She
felt the color rush into her cheeks. She paused for a moment as if to
commune with her own heart. Then her mind was made up.

"What are you doing, Renny?" said her sister. "How funny of you to have
gone into the cupboard!"

For Verena had absolutely vanished. She stood in the cupboard, and
Pauline from the bed heard a rustle. The rustling grew louder, and
Pauline wondered what it meant. A moment later Verena, her face as red as
a turkey-cock, came out.

"Paulie," she said--"Paulie, there is no good going on like this. You
have got to explain. You have got to get a load off your mind. You have
got to do it whether you like it or not. How did you come by this?
How--did--you--come--by--this?"

As Verena spoke she held in her open palm the long-lost thimble. Poor
Pauline had not the most remote idea that the thimble was still in the
pocket of the blue serge dress. She had, indeed, since the day of her
accident, forgotten its existence.

"Where did you get it?" she asked, her face very white, her eyes very
startled.

"In the pocket of the dress you wore on the day you were nearly drowned
in the White Bay."

"I told you not to mention that day," said Pauline. Her whole face
changed. "I remember," she said slowly, but she checked herself. The
words reached her lips, but did not go beyond them. "Put it down,
Verena," she said. "Put it there on the mantelpiece."

"Then you won't tell me how you got it? It is not yours. You know it
belongs to Aunt Sophy."

"And it is not yours, Renny, and you have no right to interfere. And what
is more, I desire you not to interfere. I don't love anybody very much
now, but I shall hate you if you interfere in this matter."

Verena laid the thimble on the mantelpiece.

"You can leave me, Renny. I am a very bad girl; I don