“That’s enough for me,” said the child, chuckling; “for you know perfectly well, Aunt Dorinda, that I never wanted to be anything but Ladybird.”
“Well, then,” said Mr. Ward, “do I understand, Miss Flint, that you will keep both of these children?”
“It seems to me,” said Miss Priscilla, grimly, “that I have no choice. Lavinia Lovell I will keep with pleasure, because she is the daughter of my sister; and Ladybird Lovell I keep because I love her.”
“And because I love you,” said Ladybird, as she flung her arms round Miss Priscilla’s neck.
CHAPTER XX
HALF-SISTERS
The next day Chester Humphreys and Stella Russell sat talking together. They were sitting on the ground under a certain historic apple-tree, and the young man held the girl’s very pretty hand in both his own.
“Stella mine,” he said, “I don’t like the idea of that new Lavinia taking the place of our Ladybird.”
“She doesn’t take her place,” said Stella; “anybody can see that Ladybird has her own place with the Flint ladies, and nobody can put her out of it.”
“I understand all that,” said Chester, in his decided way; “but all the same, this new girl is the Flint heiress, and will eventually be the owner of Primrose Farm—that dear old place that has belonged to the Flints for generations.”
“So she will,” said Stella; “and it’s perfectly horrid! I think Miss Priscilla ought to deed the place to Ladybird. That child loves every nook and corner of it. In the short time she has been here she has made herself a part of it, and I can no more think of Primrose Hall without Ladybird, than without Miss Priscilla and Miss Dorinda.”