“Oh, twelve from twenty-one doesn’t leave much,” said Ladybird, laughing.
Stella’s grandparents, old Mr. and Mrs. Marshall, were very much pleased to meet the young stranger.
“I knew your mother,” said Mr. Marshall, as he looked at Ladybird; “but you do not look a bit like her.”
“No,” said Ladybird; “that’s what my aunts told me.”
The two girls spent a long and pleasant afternoon together. Stella showed Ladybird all her books and other treasures, and notwithstanding the difference in their ages, the girls became congenial friends.
As it neared four o’clock Ladybird said she must go home, for her aunt had told her to come at that time.
“I am going over to Primrose Hall,” said Mrs. Marshall, “to the meeting of the Dorcas Circle. You can drive over with me.”
So among the earliest arrivals at the Dorcas meeting were Mrs. Marshall and Miss Ladybird Lovell.
Now that Ladybird’s quick and tempestuous anger had spent itself, she felt sorry to see her Aunt Priscilla arrayed in her second-best black silk, for she knew how it must have hurt that good lady to appear before her guests in anything less than the resplendent glory of her best and cherished black silk gown.
Both the Misses Flint wore a look of sternness that Ladybird could not misinterpret. But they said nothing to the child, and cordially invited Mrs. Marshall to step into the bedroom and lay off her bonnet.