black--." The whole truth was told in the plainest possible
language.

"Oh, Aunt Sally!" "Aunt Sally, how can you?" "Hold your tongue,
Aunt Sally!"

"And then Miss Grogram just cut them up with her scissors,"
continued Aunt Sally, not a whit abashed, "and gave us each a bit,
only she took more than half for herself." It was clear to me that
there had been some quarrel, some delicious quarrel, between Aunt
Sally and Miss Grogram. Through the whole adventure I had rather
respected Aunt Sally. "She took more than half for herself,"
continued Aunt Sally. "She kept all the--"

"Jemima," said the elder Miss Macmanus, interrupting the speaker and
addressing her sister, "it is time, I think, for the young ladies to
retire. Will you be kind enough to see them to their rooms?" The
five pupils thereupon rose from their seats--and courtesied. They
then left the room in file, the younger Miss Macmanus showing them
the way.

"But we haven't done any harm, have we?" asked Mrs. Jones, with some
tremulousness in her voice.

"Well, I don't know," said Miss Macmanus. "What I'm thinking of now
is this;--to whom, I wonder, did the garments properly belong? Who
had been the owner and wearer of them?"

"Why, General Chasse of course," said Miss Grogram.