"Do you see them, dear?" Miss Somerville asked.
"There's a cab coming this way, and it has luggage; it must be them, I am sure. Do come out and look." Taking her Aunt's hand, they went out together and watched the well-laden cab as it came slowly up the hill.
Often and often had Lena grumbled at that weary hill, when she came home, tired-out after a long afternoon's ramble on the sands, or a walk into Meadenham, but never before had she thought it so long and tedious as that day. She watched the cab come "creeping along," as she called it.
Then as it drew very near, a new fit came over her—a fit of shyness. Clasping Auntie's hand very tight, she crept very close to her, whispering, "I do hope;" but she had no time to say more, for at that moment a gentleman's head was put out of the cab window, that Lena instantly recognised as the same face whose photograph she had looked at so often. "Papa!" she almost gasped in her excitement.
"Here they are, waiting to welcome us home," called out Colonel Graham in a loud, cheery voice, and then the cab stopped, and there came warm, loving greetings. Lena had no very distinct recollection of all that was done or said for the next few minutes, but among all the greetings and fuss of arrival was one remembrance, that Lena thought would never leave her.
It was Mama's soft voice, that said, "My darling child; thank God for giving you back to me," so loving and tender, that Lena knew then how dear she was to Mama.
Not till they were all seated quietly in the drawing-room had Lena time to take a good look at these dear ones.
Ah, she would have known Mama anywhere, she was sure, for there was the same sweet gentle face, that had looked at her from her picture, day after day. And Papa did not look one bit stern, or grave, but was just the sort of papa she approved of; and dear, fat, chubby Lucy, with her fair curls and blue eyes—"a perfect pet" was Lena's verdict of her little sister; but Millicent, who was to be her own particular sister and companion, she was not quite what she expected her to be.
As she sat on the sofa beside Mama, her hand clasped in hers, she heard Aunt Mary say—
"They are very like, really; the same eyes and hair, and the likeness will be more apparent when Milly gets some of Lena's roses and plumpness." What Lena saw was a tall slight girl, as tall as herself, though she had two years and five months the advantage in age, with large serious brown eyes, and a pale face.