[CHAPTER XV.]
JESSIE'S ROSEWATER PHILOSOPHY.
Her voice was like music to my heart. With Jessie on one side of me, and my mother on the other, there was not a cloud on my life, nor room for one. I sat between them, now patting my mother's hand, now turning restlessly to Jessie, and looking at her in delight. But the change in the aspect of things was so sudden and unexpected, that it would not have much amazed me to see Jessie melt into thin air. This must have been expressed in my face, for Jessie, who was a skilful interpreter of expression, whispered,
'It is true; I have really come back.'
'I was doubting,' I said, in a similar low tone, 'whether I was asleep or awake.'
'Don't speak loud,' she said mockingly, 'don't look at me too hard, and don't blow on me, or you will find that you're only dreaming. Shall I pinch you?'
'No; I am awake, I know. This is the most famous thing that ever happened.'
'You were sorry when I went away, then?'
'I can't tell you how sorry; but you are not going away again?'
'I suppose not; I have no place to go to.'