"Aunt Laura is ill. We'll take you to see her to-morrow. She made us promise to."
"Oh dear Miss Clinton," broke in Miss Bird, "I do hope it is nothing serious."
"She's very old. She can't live much longer, I'm afraid. She remembers the Battle of Trafalgar, or the Crimean War—I forget which."
They talked for some time longer, and when Miss Bird went to her room to dress for dinner it was with a heart full of thankfulness to find herself still so much beloved, and with a lively curiosity as to what Virginia would be like when she should presently meet her.
She and the twins were together in the morning-room when Dick and Virginia arrived. While the twins were throwing themselves upon Virginia, Dick came forward grinning and gave her a resounding kiss on either cheek. "There, old lady," he said. "That's what you deserve and what you'll get from me now I'm married. Virginia, come and do likewise."
Miss Bird, once more, was overcome almost to the point of tears. "I'm sure this is a very happy day for me," she twittered, but could get no further.
"They're all happy days for all of us," said Virginia, who looked radiant, and not much older than her young sisters-in-law. "The twins are to bring you down to see me early to-morrow morning, when Dick is out. I want to hear all about him when he was a little boy, and I'm sure a very naughty one."
"Oh indeed," said Miss Bird; "he was high-spirited but as for naughtiness what I call real naughtiness no child could have been freer from it."
"If you think you're going to get anything against me out of Miss Bird, you may save yourself the trouble and enquire elsewhere," said Dick. "She thinks there was never such a family as the Clintons, don't you, Starling?"
"I think they're rather nice too," said Virginia, with her hands on the shoulders of Joan and Nancy and her eyes on Dick.