This so greatly relieved the children that they were in a mood to be delighted with everything when Aunt Grace led them upstairs to show them their own bedrooms. She took them first to the room which the two girls were to share, and they both exclaimed at the sight of its dainty white-painted furniture and fresh muslin hangings. In each half of the room was a little white bed, a white wash-hand stand, and a white chest of drawers with a looking-glass standing on the top of it.
‘It’s quite like grand grown-up ladies, both of us having a wash-stand and a dressing-table to ourselves,’ said Kitty, with much satisfaction; ‘there was only one of each in the night-nursery at home.’
‘They are such pretty ones, too,’ said Emmeline. ‘I do love white enamel.’
‘I’m very glad you like them,’ said Aunt Grace, looking pleased; ‘I always think one has so much more heart in keeping one’s room tidy if the furniture’s nice.’
‘Yes, you won’t have to leave your things about here, Kitty,’ remarked Emmeline, in her elder-sisterly way.
Kitty was not listening; she had rushed to the window. ‘I do believe—yes, you really can just see the sea!’ she exclaimed. ‘Oh, Aunt Grace, may we go there every day?’
‘I’m afraid it’s rather too far off to go there every day,’ said Aunt Grace; ‘it’s a good five miles. Still, I hope we shall be able to go there quite often—at all events when we’ve got our donkey-cart.’
There was a door between the girls’ room and the next, which Aunt Grace pointed out to them. ‘My room is the next,’ she said, ‘so you’ll be able to run in for any help you want. Jane will come in and do your hair in the mornings, but of course she won’t always be there for the odds and ends of things that need doing.’
‘I’ve done my own hair for quite a long time,’ Emmeline was careful to inform her.
Aunt Grace did not seem much impressed. ‘That’s a good thing,’ she observed cheerfully.