And the unexpected happened sooner, much sooner, than Margaret would even have dared to dream. Something did "turn up"! But like many adventures, it came clothed in the guise of quite an ordinary, every day affair, and there was little about its beginning to suggest the remotest idea of anything startling. To be exact, it was simply that about a week after the beginning of their acquaintance the twins came home one day with the announcement that their new friend, Corinne, had expressed a decided wish to call and make Margaret's acquaintance, and that they had invited her for the following day. At first Margaret had protested strongly:
"Oh, no, girls! I can't see her. You know I never see any strangers. It's awfully nice of her. But—but I wouldn't know what to say to any one I didn't know very well. Do thank her for me, but—"
"Nonsense!" cried Bess, decidedly. "It'll do you good to see some one beside just ourselves. Mother thinks so too. And you'll like her, I know. I couldn't tell her she mustn't come, anyway! It wouldn't be polite!" And that clinched the argument.
In reality, it had seemed quite wonderful to Margaret that this interesting new friend of her sisters could possibly care to become acquainted with her, and she felt grateful for the pleasant attention. But with the unconquerable shyness of a secluded invalid she shrank from the meeting, all her longing for something new and exciting to happen being temporarily forgotten. And then the day arrived.
"Ye'll be after havin' company, this afternoon, Margie mavourneen, so I suppose ye'll be wantin' a little snack about half-past four?" Sarah had just wheeled Margaret into the front parlor by the window, raised the shades a trifle, and tucked her idol securely and cozily into her chair.
"Oh, yes, Sarah! Do have hot chocolate and those lovely drop-cakes you made this morning!"
"Who's the gur-rl that's comin', anyway? Shure it's a strange thing for you to be seein' any one!" Sarah exclaimed jealously as she turned to leave the room.
"Oh, some one named Corinne Cameron. She's a nice girl. The twins like her," replied Margaret, with assumed indifference. Not for worlds would she have allowed Sarah to read her real feelings on the subject.
"Huh!" was Sarah's only reply as she handed Margaret her book and lumbered heavily downstairs to the kitchen, while the invalid settled herself to wait for the arrival of her twin sisters and their "queer" new friend. It was only two o'clock and she couldn't possibly expect them before three or a quarter past. The time loomed long and interminable before her. First she tried to read, but even the beloved "Little Women" failed to interest her. So she rested her elbow on the arm of her chair, and, chin in hand, stared out of the window across the street at a squat little dormer-windowed house directly opposite.