“Have you got it yet?” repeated Nora curiously.

“No, Nora.  I have not.”

“You have not?  What have you done with it?”

“Nothing.”

“My Egyptian spoon! that Marmaduke gave me to give to you!  You have not kept it!  What did you do with it, Daisy?”

“I did nothing with it.”

“Did you break it?”

“No.”

“Did you give it away?”

“O Nora, I loved it very much,” said poor Daisy; “but I could not keep it.  I could not!”

“Why couldn’t you?  I would not have given it to you, Daisy, if I had thought you would not have kept it.”

“I wanted to keep it very much—­but I could not,” said Daisy with the tears in her eyes.

“Why ‘could not’? why couldn’t you? did you give it away, Daisy? that spoon I gave you?”

“Nora, I could not help it!  Somebody else wanted it very much, and I was obliged to let her have it.  I could not help it.”

“I shall tell Marmaduke that you did not care for it,” said Nora in an offended tone.  “I wish I had kept it myself.  It was a beautiful spoon.”

Daisy looked very much troubled.

“Who has got it?” Nora went on.

“It is no matter who has got it,” said Daisy.  “I couldn’t keep it.”

“She is right, Nora,” said Preston, who came up just then, at the same time with the doctor.  “She could not keep it, because it was taken away from her without any leave asked.  I mean she shall have it back, too, one of these days.  Don’t you say another word to Daisy!—­she has behaved like a little angel about it.”

Preston’s manner made an impression, as well as his words.  Nora was checked.

“What is all that, Nora?” the doctor asked.

Now Nora had a great awe of him.  She did not dare not answer.

“It is about a spoon I gave Daisy, that she gave away.”

“She did not, I tell you!” said Preston.

“A spoon?” said the doctor.  “Silver?”

“O no!  A beautiful, old, very old, carved, queer old spoon, with a duck’s bill, that came out of an old Egyptian tomb, and was put there ever so long ago.”

“Did your brother give it to you?”

“Yes, to give to Daisy, and she gave it to somebody else.”

“Nora, I did not give it as you think I did.  I loved it very much.  I would not have let anybody have it if I could have helped it.”

“Who has got it, Daisy?” asked the doctor.

Daisy looked at him, looked perplexed, flushed a little, finally said with demure gentleness, “Dr. Sandford, I think I ought not to tell.”

The doctor smiled, took Daisy’s hand, and led her off to the supper room, whither they were now invited.  So it happened that her seat at the table was again by his side.  Daisy liked it.  Just then she did not care about being with Nora.