"Come and kiss me, Edith," she said. "I want to be Cousin Carrie from now on. Yes, Estelle, she does look more like the Averys than you, though I saw the resemblance in your face also."
"Isn't the whole thing just like a story?" Frances confided to her mother at bed-time. "What do you think will happen now?"
"I don't know," admitted Mrs. Thayne. "Estelle is so very proud that it will be hard for her to accept help from any one, but Carrie will arrange things if it can be done. I know that Estelle has been dreadfully worried because some of the little money her father left her has been lost through an imprudent investment and that she has not felt sure she could manage to keep the house through another season. And yet she must find some way of supporting herself and Edith. Things will work themselves out, for Carrie is perfectly capable of inventing some very necessary work for Estelle to do, which will preserve her self-respect and let Carrie have her way. I think Carrie usually has some young person acting as secretary and Estelle could do that easily. I am not at all worried about the future since Estelle fortunately saw the resemblance to her own mother in Mrs. Aldrich. I imagine that will make it easier for her to consider whatever plan is proposed."
"Wasn't it lucky that we came here!" sighed Frances. "And doesn't it seem odd that we did come, just because Roger and I wanted to take that little train the first day and chanced to find Rose Villa? If it hadn't been for that, we might not have looked for lodgings in St. Aubin's at all, nor known Miss Estelle and Edith. Why, Mother!" she went on, with intenser surprise in her voice. "It's just like the House that Jack built. If we hadn't come here, we wouldn't have met the beach dog, nor known Miss Connie, nor visited the Manor, nor be hunting for the Spanish chest!"
Fran stopped, looking so comically aghast that Mrs. Thayne laughed as she kissed her.
"So much depended upon a passing wish to take that little train! It is remarkable on looking back, to realize how often life turns upon some apparently trivial incident, some insignificant choice."
"It's time though, that we went home, Mother," said Frances merrily. "While you were in London, Miss Estelle wanted change for half a crown, so I tipped the money out of my purse. One piece rolled on the floor and Roger picked it up, and said: 'Why, this isn't a shilling! What is it?' So I took it, and, Mother, both of us looked at it hard for several seconds before we realized that it was a United States quarter-dollar! Don't you think it is time that we went home?"
CHAPTER XXII
THE CHEST ITSELF
Mrs. Aldrich's stay did not exceed her limit of a week, but she left for London with Estelle's willing promise to come to her when the Thaynes returned to Boston and leaving behind her two girls with gladdened hearts. After her departure Win's interest was again concentrated on the coming of the Manor family and the search for the Spanish chest.