“Oh!—why——” Jessie began. She felt embarrassed and was glad of her mother’s reappearance. Mrs. Loomis held a glass in her hand. “Drink this, dear,” she said to Adele. “You will find that it tastes very good and it will keep you from taking cold.” Adele silently obeyed, and found it a spicy-sweet draught which sent a warm glow through her.
Jessie pulled her mother’s head down to her level and whispered something to her. Mrs. Loomis nodded understandingly and when Adele set down the glass she lifted the child’s face and kissed her gently on the cheek. “You must come again,” she said.
“And will you take me to see her?” asked Jessie eagerly.
“To be sure I will,” replied Mrs. Loomis. “I am going to call on your aunt, dear,” she said to Adele, “and I hope we shall all be good friends and neighbors.”
Adele looked at her for a moment and then she caught her hand and laid her own cheek against it. “You are lovely,” she said, “and Jessie is just like you. I want her to be my friend forever.”
Then Minerva appeared at the door to say that Sam was ready with the carriage.
CHAPTER IV
Aunt Betty
CHAPTER IV
Aunt Betty
The next day there was no sign of Adele, though from time to time Jessie looked up from her play to see if her new friend by chance might be coming along the path on the other side of the brook. Sam had delivered the little girl’s belongings at the yellow house, and had been told that none of the family were up. Later Jessie’s clothes were returned with a note of thanks. So Playmate Polly had it all her own way that day, and Peter Pan was provided with more moss hangings as well as a new ornament in the shape of a bright pink pebble for his grotto. Jessie had told her mother all that she had learned about Adele and had received some information in return. Miss Betty Hallett, Adele’s aunt, was a delicate woman, and Adele herself was not strong, so the doctor had declared they would both be better in the country, and as Mr. Hallett had removed his business from the south to the middle states he had discovered in the yellow house by the brook, just the place which he thought would suit his sister and his little daughter. It was not so far from the city where he had his office but that he could come home frequently to spend Sunday, and it was in a healthful region as well as a very attractive one.
“So now,” Mrs. Loomis told Jessie, “I must call on Miss Hallett at once, for we are her nearest neighbors and I am sure she must be lonely.”