"Floss told me," said Carrots.

"Then how can you pretend you didn't know this was nurse's--taking it out of her drawer, too," said his father.

"I don't know. I didn't take it out of her drawer; it was 'aside Floss's doll," said Carrots.

"He's trying to equivocate," said his father. Then he turned to the child again, looking more determined than ever.

"Carrots," he said, "I must whip you for this. Do you know that I am ashamed to think you are my son? If you were a poor boy you might be put in prison for this."

Carrots looked too bewildered to understand. "In prison," he repeated.

"Would the prison-man take me?"

"What does he mean?" said Captain Desart.

Floss, who had been waiting un.o.bserved in her corner all this time, thought this a good opportunity for coming forward.

"He means the policeman," she said. "Oh, papa," she went on, running up to her little brother and throwing her arms round him, the tears streaming down her face, "oh, papa, poor little Carrots! he _doesn't_ understand."

"Where did _you_ come from?" said her father, gruffly but not unkindly, for Floss was rather a favourite of his. "What do you mean about his not understanding? Did you know about this business, Floss?"

"Oh no, papa," said Floss, her face flushing; "I'm too big not to understand."

"Of course you are," said Captain Desart; "and Carrots is big enough, too, to understand the very plain rule that he is not to touch what does not belong to him. He was told, too, that nurse had lost a half-sovereign, and he might then have owned to having taken it and given it back, and then things would not have looked so bad. Take him up to my dressing-room, Maurice, and leave him there till I come."

"May I go with him, papa?" said Floss very timidly.

"No," said her father, "you may not."

So Mott led off poor weeping Carrots, and all the way upstairs he kept sobbing to himself, "I never touched nurse's sovereigns. I never did. I didn't know she had any sovereigns."

"Hold your tongue," said Mott; "what is the use of telling more stories about it?"

"I didn't tell stories. I said I hided the sixpenny my own self, but I never touched nurse's sovereigns; I never did."

"I believe you're more than half an idiot," said Mott, angry and yet sorry--angry with himself, too, somehow.

Floss, left alone with her father, ventured on another appeal.

"You won't whip Carrots till mamma comes in, will you, papa?" she said softly.

"Why not? Do you think I want her to help me to whip him?" said Captain Desart.

"Oh no--but--I think perhaps mamma would understand better how it was, for, oh papa, dear, Carrots _isn't_ a naughty boy; he never, never tells stories."

"Well, we'll see," replied her father; "and in the meantime it will do him no harm to think things over by himself in my dressing-room for a little."

"Oh, poor Carrots!" murmured Floss to herself; "it'll be getting dark, and he's all alone. I _wish_ mamma would come in!"

CHAPTER VI.

CARROTS "ALL RIGHT" AGAIN.

"When next the summer breeze comes by, And waves the bush, the flower is dry."

_Walter Scott._

Floss crept upstairs to the dressing-room door. It was locked. Though the key was in the lock, she knew she must not turn it; and even had it been open she would not have dared to go in, after her father's forbidding it. But she thought she might venture to speak to Carrots, to comfort him a little, through the door. She was dreadfully afraid that he might feel frightened in there alone if it got dark before he was released, for sometimes he was afraid of the dark--he was such a little boy, remember.

Floss tapped at the door.

"Carrots," she said, "are you there?"

[Ill.u.s.tration: Floss tapped at the door. "Carrots," she said, "are you there?" _To face page_ 78.]

"Yes," said Carrots; "but you can't come in, Floss. Mott has locked me in."

"I know," said Floss; "what are you doing, Carrots? Are you very unhappy?"

"Not so very. I'm crying--I'm crying a great lot, Floss, but I don't think I'm so very unhappy--not now you've come to the door."

"Poor Carrots," said Floss, "I'll stay by the door, if you like. I'll just run down to the front door now and then, to see if mamma is coming, and then I'll come straight back to you."

"All right," said Carrots. Whenever he wanted to seem very brave, and rather a big boy, he used to say "all right," and just now he was trying very hard to be like a big boy.

There was silence for a minute or two... Then Carrots called out again.

"Floss," he said, "are you there?"

"Yes, dear," replied faithful Floss.

"I want just to tell you _one_ thing," he said. "Floss, I never did touch nurse's sovereigns. I never knowed she had any."

"It wasn't a sovereign; it was a _half_-sovereign," corrected Floss.

"I don't under'tand how it _could_ be a half-sovereign," said Carrots.

"But I never touched nurse's drawer, nor nucken in it."

"Then where _did_ you find the half-sovereign?" began Floss, "and why--oh, Carrots," she broke off, "I do believe that's the front door bell. It'll be mamma coming. I must run down."

"All right," called out Carrots again. "Don't be long, Floss; but please tell mamma all about it. I _don't_ under'tand."

He gave a little sigh of perplexity, and lay down on the floor near the window, where the room was lightest, for the darkness was now beginning to creep in, and he felt very lonely.

Poor Mrs. Desart hardly knew what to think or say, when, almost before she had got into the house, she was seized upon by Maurice and Floss, each eager to tell their own story. _Carrots_ naughty, _Carrots_ in disgrace, was such an extraordinary idea!