“Open your eyes.”
Silvia gave a little cry of pleasure, and looking over her shoulder, I beheld a baby grand piano.
“Oh, Ptolemy!” she cried, giving him a fervent kiss and fond hug, “I can never let you do so much.”
“Oh, yes,” he said, flushing a little under the endearments which were doubtless the first ever bestowed upon him. “Father’s got a whole lot of money grandpa left him and it’s fixed so he can’t draw out only so much each year. He said the board and bother of us was worth more than this and we’ll all enjoy the music. But Thag and Em and Dem ain’t to touch it. I’ll knock tar out of the first one that comes near it.”
I was disconsolate. I didn’t see how we 234 could return it and I didn’t want the Polydore web woven any tighter. To think of Silvia’s receiving from them what it had been my longing to give her! But as I was to learn later, she was to acquire much more than a piano from the eminent family.
After dinner Silvia asked Huldah to come in and hear the music, and when Silvia’s repertoire was exhausted, we gave our faithful servant all the little details of our trip which Beth had not supplied.
“Now tell us, Huldah, how things went along here,” said Silvia.
“Well, you think some wonderful things happened to you all on your trip mebby––ghosts and proposals,” looking at Beth and Rob, “and fires and Polydores, but back here in this quiet house something happened that has your ghosts and things skinned by a mile.”
“Oh, dear!” cried Silvia apprehensively, “what is it?”