“Emily!”
“Good morning, Jessie,” replied Emily, sitting up in the bed and looking full in Jessie’s face. “I hope you feel more cheery than you did last night.”
“I am very happy this morning,” replied Jessie, her eyes sparkling with delight as she spoke. “Shall I tell you how I came to be so?”
“As you please!” said Emily, shrinking from Jessie’s proposal as if she feared her story might bring back the guilty feeling of the night previous.
Jessie told her cousin just what she had felt, and how she had confessed her wrong, and how her sorrow had been rolled away. She did this so simply, so sweetly, and so kindly, that Emily blushed, and the big tears stood like dew-drops on her eyelashes. Jessie had found the way to her cousin’s heart.
But when she urged her to confess her faults and to join her in a note of apology to the Sherwoods, the pride of Emily’s heart rose within her, and dashing away her tears, she said—
“Apologize, indeed! I won’t do it!”
Just then the ringing of the first breakfast-bell warned them that it was time to rise. They did so; and Jessie, seeing that her cousin did not wish to talk any more, dressed herself in silence.
After breakfast Jessie went to her writing-desk, and wrote notes to the members of the nutting-party. These notes were all alike except in their different addresses. Here is a copy of the one for Mr. Sherman.
Glen Morris Cottage, October 25, 18—