y
amazement and consternation I found half a sovereign which certainly
ought not to be there. I am sure I know how I came by it. Yesterday,
just before I went into the house to dress the girls who were to sing
the Elizabethan madrigal, I bought a box of sweets from Lesbia
Gascoyne. I gave her a two-shilling piece, and as she had no
sixpences, she ran to Gwen to ask change for my florin. She came
hurrying back, and handed me, as we both imagined, three sixpences. I
put them in my purse without looking at them. Now I am quite sure that
one of these supposed sixpences must in reality have been half a
sovereign, given by mistake. I undoubtedly had no ten-shilling piece
in my purse. The difference of giving half a sovereign in lieu of
sixpence would be exactly the nine-and-six that was missing from
Gwen's satchel. Let us exchange the two coins, and the deficit will be
made up."

It was such a natural, simple, and self-evident explanation of the
situation that its truth could not be doubted. Miss Roscoe heaved a
sigh of intense relief.

"I am grateful to you beyond words, Miss Douglas," she returned.
"Gwen, I am most delighted that your honour is cleared, and regret I
harboured so unjust a suspicion against you. I confess it was the
affair of the broken china that prejudiced me in your disfavour. It
supplied so strong a motive. Why didn't you come and tell me about
that right away when if happened instead of trying to settle it in
such a crooked fashion? It wasn't straight and square, was it? Have I
heard the whole story?"

Gwen, who had not shed a tear before, was crying bitterly now. Miss
Roscoe's present kindly tone hurt more than her former severity.
Almost in spite of herself the girl began to blurt put her version of
how she had accidentally broken the tea service, had intended to pay
for it at once, and how Emma had absconded with the money. The
housemaid's part in the drama was news to Miss Roscoe, and she
hastened to ask for particulars.

"This must be investigated immediately," she declared. "I shall send
for Emma Dalton this afternoon. I happen to know that she has a place
as parlour-maid at a house not far away. If I had heard of this I
could not have given her a character. Indeed she deserves to be
prosecuted for theft. I must write a note to her present mistress."

Miss Roscoe never let the grass grow under her feet. In this case she
acted with her usual promptitude, and by two o'clock Emma, in much
alar