Fan laughed a little afterward. “I shall tell Winthrop that he had better wait. She might come home from Europe and marry him.”
“I do not believe they will like Jennie Ryder;” I remarked.
“Kate snubbed her long ago. But Dick and she will have a chance to get settled, I think, without any one’s interference. It is really fortunate that they are going.”
We saw Mrs. Ogden twice during her stay. She was not as lovely as Miss Esther, being more worldly-minded, but she had the Churchill breeding and was a lady.
There was one little feast that we kept by ourselves—baby’s birthday. She could walk and began to utter pretty words with one syllable left off, and was the quaintest, cunningest baby in the wide world as we knew—very well.
“What a short year;” said Fanny. “How many things have been crowded into it.”
“And we are glad to have you, dear little Dot, if there are seven of us,” exclaimed Nelly, kissing her extravagantly.
“But Mr. Duncan said he owned her and that he meant to take her away some day;” declared tiny Tim, who was fast outgrowing her pet name. It seemed to me that they were all a great deal taller than a year ago.
“We won’t let him have her just yet,” answered papa. “Or perhaps some one might go in her place.”
The children glanced at each other in dismay; and papa laughed heartily.