She was not usually a meddlesome child, but just now was tempted to
mischief from the lack of something else to interest and employ her.
She handled the articles carefully, however, and did them no damage till
she came to a beautiful cut-glass bottle filled with a costly perfume of
which she was extravagantly fond.
Violet had frequently given her a few drops on her handkerchief without
being asked, and never refused a request for it.
Gracie, seized with a desire for it, took a clean handkerchief from a
drawer and helped herself, saying half aloud, by way of quieting her
conscience, "Mamma would give it to me if she was here, she always does,
and I'll be careful not to break the bottle."
She was pouring from it as she spoke. Just at that instant she heard a
step in the hall without, and a sound as if a hand was laid on the
door-knob.
It so startled her that the bottle slipped from her fingers, and striking
the bureau as it fell, lay in fragments at her feet; its contents were
spilled upon the carpet, and the air of the room was redolent of the
delicious perfume.
Gracie, naturally a timid child, shrinking from everything like reproof or
punishment, stood aghast at the mischief she had wrought.
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