And in her own room, Miss Lucinda was owning to herself that the day, for one reason or another, had been different from all the long line of Thanksgivings stretching out behind her.
“Mother,” she said, coming to the half-open door between their rooms, “I’ve been thinking—how would it be to give Blue Bonnet a party—during Christmas week?”
“As a reward of merit?” Mrs. Clyde asked.
“Elizabeth used always to have her Christmas party,” Miss Lucinda answered. “We have not entertained, in that way, since she went West.”
CHAPTER XIII
CHRISTMAS BOXES AND OTHER MATTERS
The next morning Mr. Ashe left for New York. “I’ll be back in time to get that box off,” he promised; “you have your part all ready, Honey.”
Aunt Lucinda was going in town with the “Boston relatives.” “Everybody seems going somewhere, except you and me, Grandmother,” Blue Bonnet said, as she stood before the fire in the sitting-room on her return from the station. It was hard to settle down to the every day business of practising and so on.
“You will be riding this afternoon, dear,” Mrs. Clyde answered; and then Aunt Lucinda came down, ready for her trip.
She handed Blue Bonnet a little roll of crisp new bills. “For your Christmas shopping,” she explained. “I am not so unreasonable, my dear, as to expect your present allowance to cover that.”