"Yes, it would; and I think I must send another letter to her mistress, asking her to spare Eliza for Monday afternoon, if she cannot come out for the day."
"Oh yes, mother, do!" said Eliza, clapping her hands, and making almost as much noise as Selina herself.
No one had seen Eliza so noisy and merry before, and mother and father could only look at each other and smile, with satisfied pleasure as they looked at the girl.
Again her father remarked how much she was growing like Fanny, to which Mrs. Brown could only answer by a sigh; for to her it would be bitter indeed if Eliza should show the same wilful, selfish tendency of character that Fanny did.
But at present, every action was like those to which they had been accustomed in the old days, when she was ready to do a kindness to any one who needed her help, and to think of Eliza as anything but the kind, helpful sister seemed impossible.
Now it was Jack and Minnie and Selina who were consulted, and for each she had brought a little present from the seaside; although it had cost every penny she possessed to bring something for each of the dear ones at home.
They were but trifles, perhaps. A shell box for Jack, a similar one for Minnie, some shells she had picked up on the beach for Selina, and a shell pincushion for her mother. Still this trifle was worth its weight in gold to her mother's heart, for it was an assurance to her that, at least for the present, Eliza was unchanged; and all the kind things that had been said to her, and of her, had not spoiled her yet. For her father she had brought a wooden tobacco-pipe; and it seemed to Mrs. Brown that her husband did not value it as he ought.
Fanny had never given him even such a trifle as this, which was, perhaps, why her father did not set such store by it as he might have done, if the gift had come from his darling Fanny.
However, neither said a word to the other as to what they thought of their gifts.
A very happy evening was spent, and then mother and father walked back to the Vicarage with Eliza, who still had another happy day to anticipate, when she should meet her elder sister on Monday.