“I’d love to come, if I can,” she said. “But I’ll have to ask Grandfather, of course. And I don’t know about school yet.”
“We’ll fix it somehow,” Beverly nodded. “Mother will be crazy to see you. And you’ll love Liveoaks, our old place. Well, so-long! I’ll have to hurry if we are to get that swim.” And Beverly moved on, as fast as Beverly could.
“How dear they are!” thought Anne. “I never would have believed it, six weeks ago!”
Meanwhile, with Patsy in her lap, Tante sat on the piazza of the bungalow watching for Anne. As she darned the stockings of the Twins she glanced up every now and then anxiously. Anne was late. All these meetings and talks had delayed her and Nelly. When at last Tante saw the two girls coming along the path she laid down her mending and went to greet them with a sweet smile. “I am glad to see you back, Anne my dear!” she said, cordially. And Patsy arching his back seemed to agree with her, in an amiable purr. “These two days have seemed long to us.”
Nelly lingered at the foot of the steps. She hated to give up this new-found cousin of hers. “I guess I will go back now,” she said, reluctantly. “Will you come over to-morrow, Anne?”
“Of course I will,” said Anne heartily. “Don’t feed the rabbit till I come. I want him to be glad to see me.”
“You don’t need to worry. We shall all be glad enough,” grinned Nelly. Anne waved her out of sight. Then she sat down on the piazza steps at Tante’s feet. It seemed as if she had been gone a week. But Tante acted exactly as if nothing had happened. Tante always treated everybody the same at one time as at another; which was one reason why everybody loved her so much. She told Anne some of the things the Club had planned for the next two weeks. Then she said quite casually that of course the Camp would be closed in September, and not opened till another summer.
“Another summer!” said Anne. “I suppose I shan’t see any of you till then. Won’t it be odd?” Tante asked her if she had any plan for the winter, and Anne hesitated. “Not any regular plan,” she asked. “You know everything about me, don’t you, Tante?” Tante said yes, she did.
“I have a foreign name now!” said Anne. “Isn’t it queer? I can’t quite get used to being Anne Carlsen,” she spoke it strangely. Tante asked her if she liked her new name, and Anne confessed that it sounded better to her than the old one. Then Tante said a strange thing:
“Because, if you don’t like it we can change it. How would you like the name of Batchelder, for instance? How would you like to call Nancy your sister, and Hugh and the Twins your brothers, Anne?”