The Wonderful Garden by Edith Nesbit

Now you may say it was Chance, or you may say it was Fate; or you may say it was Destiny, or Fortune; in fact, you may say exactly what you choose. But the fact remains unaltered by your remarks.

When Mrs. Wilmington placed a fat brown volume of sermons on the shelf and said, ‘There, that's the last,' she, quite without meaning it, said what was not true. For when tea was over the children found that the fat sermon-book had _not_ been the last. The last was _Shadoxhurst on Thessalonians_, a dull, large book, and Mrs. Wilmington had not put it back in its place because she had not seen it. It was, in fact, lying on the floor, hidden by the table-cloth. If Charles had not happened to want his handkerchief, and gone down to look for it on the floor-its usual situation when it was needed-they would not have seen the book either.