“It is right, dearie. It would be very foolish to keep you two little girls apart because of what happened to your ancestors, twenty years ago.”
“Yes’m; and are you going to keep on feuding with Mrs. Middleton?”
“I don’t know yet,” said Miss Rachel, smiling again; “if I do, it will be because she insists upon it. But I feel sure I can persuade her to feel as I do, about you children.”
“You’re a brick, Auntie,” declared Dick, who walked at her other side. “I was ’most sure you’d cave in when you saw how the girls felt about it.”
“It was really the way you two felt about it, that persuaded me; indeed, if I hadn’t ‘caved in,’ as you call it, I think you would have squeezed me to pieces.”
“Yes, we’re good coaxers,” said Dick, modestly. “We used to coax Auntie Helen that way; but she always got to laughing.”
“It wasn’t a humorous occasion, to-day,” said Aunt Rachel, and then they all went in to supper.
Aunt Abbie, who was wondering what had become of them, was then told the whole story, which greatly interested her.
“And now,” said Dolly, as everything had been explained, “you see why I was asking about fairies last night. I didn’t really think Phyllis was a fairy, but she came so—so unexpected, you know, and she wouldn’t tell me her name, and she told me to keep it all a secret.”
“I think that part of it was a little naughty,” said Aunt Abbie, judicially.