“Mercy on us, Anne, you’ve flavoured that cake with anodyne liniment . I broke the liniment bottle last week and poured what was left into an old empty vanilla bottle. I suppose it’s partly my fault⁠—I should have warned you⁠—but for pity’s sake why couldn’t you have smelled it?”

Anne dissolved into tears under this double disgrace.

“I couldn’t⁠—I had such a cold!” and with this she fairly fled to the gable chamber, where she cast herself on the bed and wept as one who refuses to be comforted.

Presently a light step sounded on the stairs and somebody entered the room.