She obediently took her nap, and surrendered herself to the hands of the maid to have the finishing touches put to her toilet. It was the soft gray voile that she elected to wear to-night, and Donald admired her when she emerged from her room in the dress, looking every inch a lady.
A knock sounded at the door before he had had time to give Aunt Crete a word of his admiration; but his eyes had said enough, and she felt a glow of humble pride in her new self, the self that he had created out of what she had always considered an unusually plain old woman. With the consciousness of her becoming attire upon her she turned with mild curiosity to see who had knocked; and, behold, her sister and niece stood before her!
The day had been passed by them in melancholy speculations and the making and abandoning of many plans of procedure. After careful deliberation they at last concluded that there was nothing to be done but go down and find out who these people really were, and if possible allay the ghost of their fears and set themselves free from their dull little room.
“If it should be Aunt Crete and Donald, we’ll just settle them up and send them off at once, won’t we, mother?”
“Certainly,” said Mrs. Burton with an angry snap to her eyes. “Trust me to settle with your Aunt Crete if it’s really her. But I can’t think it is. It isn’t like Crete one bit to leave her duty. She’s got a lot of work to do, and she never leaves her work till it’s done. It must be some one else. What if it should be those folks you admire so much? I’ve been thinking. We had some New York cousins by the name of Ward. It might be one of them, and Donald might have gone to them first, and they’ve brought him down here. I can’t think he’s very much, though. But we’ll just hope for the best, anyway, till we find out. If it’s Aunt Crete, I shall simply talk to her till she is brought to her senses, and make her understand that she’s got to go right home. I’ll tell her how she’s mortifying you, and spoiling your chances of a good match, perhaps——”
“O ma!” giggled Luella in admiration.
“I’ll tell her she must tell Donald she’s got to go right home, that the sea air don’t agree with her one bit—it goes to her head or something like that; and then we’ll make him feel it wouldn’t be gallant in him not to take her home. That’s easy enough, if ’tis them.”
“But ma, have you thought about your sprained ankle? How’ll they think you got over so quick? S’posing it shouldn’t be Aunt Crete.”
“Well, I’ll tell her the swelling’s gone down, and all of a sudden something seemed to slip back into place again, and I’m all right.”
This was while they were buttoning and hooking each other into their best and most elaborate garments for the peradventure that the people they were to meet might prove to be of patrician class.