"I should just think it is news," said Mrs. Orban unsteadily. "Listen to this, Jack: 'Dorothy has been so very slow in her recovery from the terrible bout of typhoid she had in spring that the doctor advises a long sea voyage at once, and we have decided to send her out to you by the first boat available. We go up to London to-morrow to get her outfit.'"
"Aunt Dorothy!" yelled the children. "Aunt Dorothy coming here!"
It was a most surprising piece of news, almost incredibly so. The children had never seen any of their parents' people, as none of them had been over to Queensland. They knew them only by name and the oft-repeated tales of childhood, which were their favourite stories of all Mr. and Mrs. Orban told.
This was their mother's unmarried sister, Dorothy Chase, who lived with her father and mother in Herefordshire, in the "old home" the children knew so well by hearsay, and longed so much to see. Some one coming out from England was next best to going home, and the news produced the wildest commotion of questions and suggestions.
"When will she come, mother? When can she be here?" came in chorus.
"Well, I am sure I don't know," Mrs. Orban said; "but it seems to me she will not be very far behind this letter."
"Not more than a fortnight, I should think," said Mr. Orban. "You see they are hurrying her off."
"O mummie, this is exciting!" Nesta exclaimed. "Do tell us how old Aunt Dorothy is!"
"Just twenty-three. She was a little child when I last saw her, and I can never picture her grown up."
"Twenty-three is a decent age for girls," said Eustace.