"I don't know how happy other people may be," she answered; "I only hope that they are as happy as I am."
"There! I knew it!" Miss Crilly exulted, as if she had just disclosed a secret.
The others laughed, the thin ice of conventionality was swept away, and at once all were merry.
"I think the new ladies wished they were coming when they heard us talking about it," said Miss Mullaly.
"They said they were invited to spend the day with relatives," returned the hostess.
"Yes, but they won't have half so good a time as we shall." Miss
Crilly wagged her head expectantly. "They'll just sit around stiff
and poky—most of them look as if they would. Isn't Polly coming,
Mis' Randolph?"
"This evening."
"Won't that be lovely! She always makes things fly!"
During the forenoon the house was inspected from the quaint little rooms under the eaves to the cold-storage apartment below ground. Miss Crilly insisting that she wanted to see the head and the foot of it; and no new mistress of her own home would have been human not to be pleased with the praise that came from all lips, even including Miss Castlevaine's and Mrs. Crump's. In fact, these two fault-finders appeared to have been won over from their most unpleasant habits by the changes at the Home, which went to prove that Colonel Gresham was not wholly wrong.
"The clouds are chiming in with the rest of the world," called Miss Mullaly from the sunshine-room, just as the sun was setting. "Come here, every one of you, and see this sky!"