"No, indeed, I am sure it was not."
"Nor—Mr. Pinckney?"
"It is more like the kind of thing he likes to do, but still I do not think we can suspect him in this case, for you know, my dear, no one but your own family, here in the house, knows the reason you had for declining Mrs. Roberts' invitation. She does not even know yet that you think of positively declining it. There would be absolutely no excuse for Mr. Pinckney to send it, you see."
The señorita sighed. Her little rage was passing away since there was no one to accuse. She shook her head. "Then I know not who. Could it be my uncle?" she said suddenly, her face lighting up. "Perhaps he has thought to do this knowing I am sending his family more——" She paused, startled at her speech. "What have I said?" she murmured.
"Never mind," said Miss Helen soothingly. "I shall not remember."
The señorita seized her hands and kissed them. "You are so good, so patient. I am a heedless, an ungrateful. I can do nothing then, can I?"
"Nothing but take the gifts the gods send you, make up the stuff and wear it. Let us look at it. What a pretty frock it will make. You have that lovely lace, you were showing us the other day, to wear with it, and that pretty topaz necklace of your mother's. So shall you go to the tea, and I am very glad. Now, don't worry any more about the giver. Whoever it was, I can assure you it was none of us nor the Robertses. Now, be happy about it like any other girl." She stooped and kissed the señorita's bright hair.
"I will be happy," said the girl springing up. "You do not know how I have desired to be, how I have wished to have life like other girls, and so I shall, once, once be like them. I thank you, Miss Corner, for being so patient, and for showing me what to do."
"Mrs. Corner will help you to make it, I know," said Miss Helen, "and I will do all I can, though I am not the clever seamstress she is. Let us go show it to her."
Gathering the stuff up in her arms the señorita followed Miss Helen to Mrs. Corner's room where the how and what of making and trimming was at length discussed, and as the señorita became more and more convinced that her uncle was the giver she grew better and better satisfied, so that when the girls came home they found her happy and radiant.