Leaning on her crutches, Margaret idly plucked the dead leaves from a geranium in the window-box, and Corinne stood twisting one of the younger girl's dark curls around her finger. Presently she said:
"Father had a letter from old Mrs. Jewell this morning. She says words would be impossible to describe how happy she is. She thinks it just marvelous that we girls were led to do what we did, for she was in desperate straits when we first came. She declares she would never have accepted it as a charity, but it was really help from her own dead kindred sent through us. She considers it an absolute miracle!"
"Isn't it strange!" began Margaret. "That's the exact word Mother used last night when we were talking it over. She said it all seemed like a miracle to her—the way you came into our lives, and walked straight to the heart of the mystery that very first day; the way we worked it all out and restored what was her own to Alison's granddaughter just in the nick of time; and best of all, what's happened to me!"
"Well, I wasn't left out in the miracle way, either," laughed Corinne; "for I've had the loveliest adventure imaginable, and made the very dearest friend of all my life!" She squeezed Margaret's hand, and the two girls looked for one long, understanding moment into each other's eyes. After a quiet interval Corinne spoke again:
"Margaret, there's something I never told you! No one but Father knows it. But I'm going to tell you now. Do you know what I plan to be when I am older?"
Margaret looked up at her in quick interest, and said: "No! Tell me!"
"Well, it's my ambition to be a writer. Father says I have some gift in that direction, and I am constantly practising at it. But, after I've learned how and can really write what people might like to read, the first story I'm going to tell is the one about Alison Trenham and the wonderful way she helped to rescue Washington at the time he was in such danger!"
"Oh, that's perfectly splendid!" cried Margaret. "I wish I could do something like that, but I'm afraid it isn't in me. Shall I tell you my chief ambition, Corinne? I want to get so strong that I can join a basket-ball team—and beat the twins at it!"