“Oh, won’t this room be lovely,” said Nelly. “Why, I could swing Tabby around in it without hitting the children!”
“Let me catch you swinging Tabby! She has passed through purgatory.”
“And these book-shelves are just the thing. Daisy, they are mine, do you understand? If I find one of your books here I shall put it in the middle of the floor.”
“That will have one merit at least, I can see it there.”
We finished the two rooms by night, and then had callers all the evening. But Sunday without mamma seemed quite out of the order of things. I knew papa felt lost, though we all tried to do our best. Once it came into my mind what the house would be without her forever, and my eyes filled with tears. We sat together an hour after church, talking about her.
We went to work again the first of the week. The carpet had come and was very pretty. A mossy, fine figured vine in two shades of green, with a dash of crimson here and there. The lounge had been covered the year before with green reps and still looked bright.
“How pretty it will be!” I said, “I am all impatience to see it down and the room in order. The carpet comes just like a present, doesn’t it?”
“We have forgotten the work and the worry.”
“Perhaps it was a good thing for us. And somehow I do believe it will prove good for Louis Duncan.”
“When will we go at the study, Mrs. Whitcomb?”