“You surely asked Mrs. Stone about the locket?” inquired Miss Gordon.
“Only casually, for at first I thought surely I would find it. And how could I accuse her without proof?”
“So you thought you would find it?” teased her husband. “That reveals to me that deep down in your mind, you knew you might have misplaced it yourself.”
“Nothing of the sort! I recall leaving it on the kitchen table. While I entertained my guests, it disappeared. I’ve never seen it since, and never will.”
“Couldn’t anyone except Mrs. Stone have taken it?” asked Jane. “One of the guests perhaps?”
“Maybe the locket was thrown out with the garbage,” speculated Eileen. “Once my mother lost a silver spoon that way.”
“I don’t see how such a thing could have occurred,” declared Grandmother Gordon. “If the locket were lost, Mrs. Stone would be responsible, because she did all the kitchen work that day.”
“Your mind is dead set against the woman,” said her husband. “Poor Mrs. Stone and those children the Brownies want to help!”
“I feel very sorry for the three children. If they need toys, I see no harm in the Brownies helping out. I shouldn’t have said a word about the locket.”
“On the contrary, it’s well to know the truth about the family,” returned Miss Gordon. “However, since no one can be certain Mrs. Stone actually took the locket, I believe in giving her the benefit of the doubt. How about it, Brownies?”
“Let’s buy the sled just as we planned,” proposed Connie.
“I say so too!” cried Veve, forgetting that she was not a Brownie.
All the members of the troop agreed with Connie and Miss Gordon that their plan should not be abandoned.
“I truly am sorry I told you anything about it,” apologized Grandmother Gordon. “I should regret it deeply if this story ever were repeated outside the family.”
“Brownies know how to keep secrets,” Miss Gordon assured her.
“I wish we could find the locket and prove that Mrs. Stone didn’t take it,” said Connie soberly.
“My dear, I wish you could too,” smiled Grandmother Gordon. “Unfortunately, one can’t alter facts.”
No more was said about the matter just then. The Brownies cleared the table and did the dishes.
After that, some of the girls rode to the village with Grandfather Gordon. Connie, Veve, and Rosemary remained behind to write letters home. Later, they played with Fluff and pressed their Brownie uniforms which had become mussed on the trip.