"No; mother is in Oxfordshire."
"Staying at Maythorne's; how like Aunt Annabella."
"She is not at Maythorne's you know, it is shut up, for the owners are gone abroad."
"But I hear another carriage. Yes! that is mother and Piers."
Joyce flew downstairs to greet her mother, and to give Piers a rapturous embrace.
Everything in the house was well arranged, and especial care had been bestowed on "mother's room."
Mrs. Falconer had no fine dresses, so she did not enquire for a hanging cupboard. She speedily found her way to the nursery, and baby Joy delighted her by holding out her arms to her grannie, with a bewitching smile.
"It's all beautifully neat, Joyce," she said, looking round her with a critical air. "Well, you don't regret now I taught you useful things, though you have no accomplishments like that poor, foolish Charlotte?"
They were a very happy party at an early dinner, and the good arrangement of everything, and the excellence of the bill of fare, brought many compliments to Joyce, especially from her mother.
"Except at Fair Acres," she said, "she had never tasted such light pastry, or such good plum-puddings and mincemeat. The turkey, too——"