Then she led the newcomer into the library where she was gladly welcomed by all who knew her and introduced by Nan to “my uncle, Monsieur Alecsandri.”
Phyllis, who never had believed that her room-mate was really a gypsy, took the arrival of an aristocratic uncle quite as a matter of course, and when they were all seated, Nan, still curious, exclaimed: “Do tell me how you happened to know that it was time to come to my wedding.”
Phyllis looked up at Robert with a mischievous twinkle in her blue eyes. “Shall I tell?” she asked.
“I’ll tell,” that lad replied. “Last week I wired my fair cousin to board a train at once for the West if she wished to attend our wedding which I hoped would be solemnized on Thanksgiving day.”
“Robert! How could you invite a guest to our wedding before you had asked me to marry you?” Nan laughingly declared.
“It was rather presumptuous,” the lad confessed, “but all’s well that ends well.”
Monsieur Alecsandri accepted Miss Barrington’s invitation to remain in her home, and Phyllis spent the night with Nan, for they had much to talk about. The latter maiden often fell to wondering what Robert’s surprising plan was for their wedding.
CHAPTER XXXVI.
NAN’S TROUSSEAU.
The wedding day dawned gloriously. The two girls were up early and as soon as they were dressed, Nan drew her friend to the wide open window and they looked out at the garden, where masses of yellow chrysanthemums were glowing in the sunlight. Beyond, the wide silvery beach was glistening, and, over the gleaming blue water a flock of shining white sea gulls dipped and circled. Silently the two girls stood with arms about each other, and, in memory, Nan was again in the long ago. She was watching two children dressed in gypsy garb as they stood near the rushing, singing fountain. One was a dark, eager-eyed girl of thirteen, and the other was a mis-shapen, goblin-like boy of ten.
Tirol, dear little Tirol. How he had loved her, how he had clung to her! Tears gathered in the girl’s eyes as she thought of the little fellow and she hoped that, somehow he might know what a happy day this was to be for his dear Sister Nan.