'Our pleasure is only delayed for a few hours,' said Mr. Mortimer, as he put an arm round the neck of each of his little girls. 'They will be here in the course of a short time, no doubt, and have you got every thing ready to receive them?'
'Oh yes, papa, quite ready,' replied Elizabeth, who was slipping her neck from under her father's arm, with the intention of again returning to the bottom of the shrubbery. Harriet directly followed her towards the door.
'And where now my little girls,' said Mrs. Mortimer; 'not to the shrubbery again this evening?'
'We were going, mamma,' replied Elizabeth: 'had you rather we should not?'
'I had,' answered Mrs. Mortimer; you have been out nearly two hours, and the air is now very sharp and cold; the sun is set, and in a short time it will be quite dusk. You can watch the road from the play-room window; and I think it very likely your brothers will not be here before quite night.'
Both the little girls would have preferred another run in the shrubbery, and another peep over the gate at the end of it: but they were accustomed to know, that their mother's judgment was better than their own; and without a murmur, therefore they repaired to the school-room.
'Oh! there they are,—there they are,' said Elizabeth, before she had scarcely reached the window: 'It must be my brothers,—I am sure it was a post-chaise.'
'Where—where?' said Harriet, jumping up upon the window seat, and straining her eyes to catch a sight of the desired object.
'I cannot see it now,' replied Elizabeth, 'it is gone behind the elm trees by the side of the road: we shall see it again, presently. Do go, dear Harriet, and ask mamma if we may go down and meet them.'
'But I do not know they are coming,' said Harriet: 'do dear Elizabeth tell me where you saw them. I do not think you could have seen them: and if you did, they must be a great way off.'