"Don't get a cloth yet.

Come with me back into the parlor, and bring the tureen.

I want to see it in full light." They looked amazed, but they followed me as I made a dash for the drawing-room, Miss Thankful with the tureen in her hands.

I was quite Mistress of myself before I faced them again, and, sitting down, took the tureen on my lap, greatly to Miss Charity's concern as to the injury it might do my frock.
"There is something I must tell you about myself before I can accept your gift," I said.
"What can you have to tell us about yourself that could make us hesitate to bestow upon you such an insignificant piece of old cracked china ?" Miss Thankful asked as I sat looking up at them with moist eyes and wildly beating heart.
"Only this," I answered.

"I know what perhaps you had rather have had me ignorant of.