CHAPTER XV.
That evening Blue and Red were sent to bed rather in disgrace, because they had professed themselves too sleepy to finish sewing a seam their mother had given them to do.
Very sleepy, very glad to fold up their work, they made their way, through the cold empty room which was intended to be the drawing-room when it was furnished, to one of the several bedrooms that opened off it.

There was only one object in the empty room which they passed through, and that was the big family carriage, for which no possible use could be found during the long winter, and for the storing of which no outside place was considered good enough.

It stood wheelless in a corner, with a large grey cloth over it, and the girls passing it with their one flickering candle looked at it a little askance.

They had the feeling that something might be within or behind it which would bounce out at them.
Once, however, within their small whitewashed bedroom, they felt quite safe.

Their spirits rose a little when they shut the door, for now there was no exacting third person to expect anything but what they chose to give.