The children were very much interested in helping arrange the spare room for their grandmother. Alice got out the prettiest bureau cover from the linen closet, and the children helped their mother wash the china for the washstand. It was pretty china, covered with small pink roses, with green leaves. And there was a pincushion, that was white over pink, on the bureau. Peggy went out and picked some of the hemlock and put that in a green vase on the table.
It was a pleasant excitement to have their grandmother come. She always brought them presents. She was a quiet, dignified woman, and she had brown eyes very like Alice’s, but her hair, that was once brown, was now snow-white. They all went down to the station to meet her, and they rode back with her in the taxi, and that was great fun.
Their grandmother was not a person who expressed a great deal, so, when she came into the house and said, “Mary, how pleasant you have made this little house look,” they were all very much pleased.
The children could hardly wait for her trunk to be unpacked, for they were eager to see what she had brought. They did not venture to go into her room; she liked to have her room to herself. She was tired, and it was almost supper-time before she came down. She had some things in her hands.
“I have some blue gingham here for a dress for Peggy, and some pink for Alice,” she said. “I have brought some material for new white dresses, too.”
The children were delighted with the thought of their new frocks. Their grandmother brought them each a book besides.
Lady Janet wandered into the parlor.
“You have the same cat, I see,” said their grandmother.
“Oh, no, grandmother, she’s different,” Alice said. “Don’t you see how different she is? She’s her daughter. She hasn’t so many stripes on her tail, and she’s a lighter gray. And she’s got a different character.”
“Has she?” said their grandmother, as pussy began to sharpen her claws on the sofa. “It seems to me her nature is very much the same. Do you let her come into the parlor?”