“You are too generous! Oh, Miss Churchill, how can I thank you?”
“By wearing and enjoying them, my dear, and not having any fussy feeling over them. Just as if they had come from an aunt, for instance. I do not believe your mother will object. She is too truly a lady to fancy that I desire to place you under any obligation.”
I should have stood silent and abashed. Fan did the best thing of all, just clasped her arms around Miss Churchill’s neck and kissed her for thanks.
The stage came lumbering along at that moment. Miss Churchill glanced out of the window with one arm still around Fanny.
“Of all things! Here is Winthrop Ogden looking too merry for any misfortune. It is like him to take us so by surprise. My dear, I will run down a moment.”
CHAPTER VIII.
Fan heard the sound of the voices without distinguishing the words, and turned to an inspection of the dresses. There was a dainty apron overskirt of the muslin, with the same lovely ruffling around it, and plenty for the waist and sleeves. The others were blue and white striped, one very narrow, the other about an inch wide, with a kind of embroidered figure in the stripe. The skirts were long and full, and with one there was a mantle.
Miss Churchill returned presently.
“You have not mutinied in my absence, have you? My dear girl, I do not want to place you under any obligation, yet I thought these garments might be of some use to you and your sister. It would not do to send them to the sewing society to be cut up for the very poor. Don’t give yourself an anxious thought. Now go in to Lucy who is waiting for you, and when she is ready you must come down stairs and see our nephew.”