“You’ll see all the court dresses, the ermine capes, the little coronets of the peeresses, and the grand coronation robes of the king and queen. You’ll see the little prince and princess, the duchess and her handsome husband, and that new Ambassador from the United States that everyone is talking about.
“You’ll see them all and talk to them. Why, it’s all something to dream about and here it’s happened to you! Oh, Nan, I’m so excited I could cry.”
“There, there, Bess,” Laura came into the room, “if you cry all over that taffeta dress you are packing, you’ll die of grief and never see Nan in all her glory.
“Nan,” she turned to her friend, “you run along downstairs. They want you. I’ll finish your packing and don’t you dare let anyone at all hear you say what I heard you say to Bess about not wanting to be a lady-in-waiting to the queen! Forsooth! They hang people for less or else they throw them into musty old dungeons and let them die. It would be a shame to have you pining away in a prison, while we were sitting in the pleasant May sunshine watching golden coaches full of fair ladies drive by.”
“Oh, I’ll be good from now on,” Nan promised as she disappeared down the stairs.
There, everything was in a turmoil, and Nan was the center of it all. It was, “Nan, darling, here’s a cable from your mother,” “Lass, a telegram from Edinburgh,” and “Miss Nan, a phone call from London,” and a thousand and one other exciting things until Nan didn’t know which way to turn next.
Then she was whisked off with her friends to a train. They had a private coach this time, one provided by the village of Emberon from the funds collected at the celebration on the night of Nan’s arrival. The whole town turned out to see them off. There was music and laughter and good wishes all round and a promise exacted from Nan to come back again.
James Blake was the last to bid her good-by. He pushed her through the crowd that swarmed about her on the station steps, took her into her coach, and seated her.
“Now, lass,” he said, “forget the unpleasant things that have happened and remember that Emberon is your home, too.”
Nan nodded her head, and swallowed the lump that was in her throat. She couldn’t speak. The excitement in leaving the castle and listening now to all the nice things that were being said was almost too much.