A leather case with 12 soup spoons, monogram L. R.
A wooden case with 12 dessert spoons, monogram G. v. S.
With the help of these lists she established beyond a doubt that one
case was missing.
Myra was not even frightened when she heard Aunt Emily’s shrill, excited
voice and the weeping of the affronted maid. She was simply happy to be
able to straighten out the situation. Thank heaven! Else poor Bertha
would very likely have been suspected of stealing! Myra entered the room
and said quite coolly and somewhat proudly, “You don’t need to be upset,
Aunt. The silver is safe. I pawned it!”
As a result of the next few days’ events, it gradually dawned on Myra
that she had done something which, in the opinion of the others, she was
not justified in doing.
The house-maid told everybody who would listen to her that honest people
were accused of stealing in her house because the “little brat” had
“snitched” the silver and taken it to the pawnbroker.
The fat old cook wept and wrung her hands in lamentation.
Aunt Emily went about as if horror had turned her to stone. Tears came
to the eyes of Myra’s father whenever he looked at his unhappy child. A
children’s specialist even appeared on the scene, bearing the fearful
and uncanny title of “psychiatrist,” and subjected Myra to a long
examination.
And the “young lady” stormed and wept and screamed at her, calling her
an “idiot” and an “imbecile,” and kicked and scratched her, then fell on
her knees before her, declaring she was a “little saint,” and imploring
her “to keep quiet.”
Myra “kept quiet.” But as she did not know what it was she should keep
quiet about, she kept quiet about everything. She let them question her
gently or angrily, during inquisitions that lasted for hours. She let
them shake her, beseech her, let them lock her in her room—she would not
talk. Her silence became a wall about her. She could no longer have
broken it, had she wished.
But the “young lady” had to leave anyway. Whether she was an accessory
or innocent, it was clear that no child could be so abandoned if its
education were in good hands.
The “young lady” left. And Myra suffered all the mortal pangs of
separation and loneliness.