"Oh, you little darling!" clasping her, and pinching the peach-bloom cheek. "I am so glad to have a glimpse of you; for mamma has sung your praises until I ought to be jealous, but out of my boundless generosity I still smile upon you. No need to ask how you are, but one may inquire after your aunt?"
"Miss Barry is quite well," Sylvie said with some constraint, remembering their last parting.
Irene had honestly forgotten it. She laughed now, a low, ringing, melodious laugh.
"Why, it is quite a treat to see you open wide your sunrise eyes. I have taken everybody by surprise, and enjoy it immensely. Gerty and I are off to fresh fields and pastures new, and home came right in my way. Sylvie, you are a good little creature to come and amuse mamma when her own lovely and amiable daughter is racing after the pomps and vanities of this naughty world. Sit down;" and she made room on the sofa beside herself. "Don't let such a frivolous creature as I turn you from the post of duty."
"I did not come to stay," Sylvie answered rather stiffly.
"As if the intention were cast in adamant! Oh! why is not Fred here to use his persuasive tongue?"
There was a peculiar laughing light in Irene's eye that annoyed Sylvie, for it seemed to indicate a secret knowledge.
"I can stay just half an hour," was the reply in a decisive tone. "At eleven I take my lesson in painting.— Aunt wanted you to have these, Mrs. Lawrence, in their first bloom of ripeness."
"They are delightful. A thousand thanks to both of you, my dear."
"And you really manage to exist in this dull place, Sylvie! You are a miracle of content," interposed Irene.