“Good! My, but I’m hungry.” Betsy skipped to the door and flung it wide open. Outside the other girls waited and then down the front stairs they ran in a manner that was never seen at Vine Haven when Miss King awaited them in the lower hall.
Eleanor glanced toward the telephone as they passed, wondering when it would ring again. They were descending the stairs to the dining room when she heard its summons. “Eleanor, come quick!” Betsy shouted from the end of the line. “It’s probably for you!”
CHAPTER XXIX
A HAPPY REUNION
There was no need to call twice for Eleanor bounded back and took down the receiver. The girls had returned to the main corridor and waited eagerly. They heard a glad cry which assured them that it was indeed Mrs. Burgess, but they were surprised at Eleanor’s first remark. “Mother, are you really home? I mean here at grandfather’s place? Oh, I can’t wait to get there, and you have a surprise for me? Well, then, I have a surprise for you! Yes, yes, Mumsie. I’ll come at once. I’ll get Micky to take me.”
When the girl turned toward them, Virginia thought she had never before seen a more glowing face. Eleanor tried to speak but choked and holding out her arms ran to Virginia and clung to her, sobbing. Then she reached out a hand and drew the wondering Peggy to her.
At that moment the mystified Mrs. Dorsey appeared at the head of the basement stairs. “Girls, why don’t you come? Your lunch will be that cold, ’twill be no good at all, and I took such pains making what I knew you’d be liking.”
“Eleanor dear, come down with us. You and Peggy are just as hungry as we are, and, after lunch, if Mrs. Dorsey is willing, I will accompany you in the bus.”
Reluctantly the girl permitted herself to be led to the dining room but she was so excited, so eager to be gone that she could hardly eat, but Virginia knew that Peggy could, and she did, though she kept watching her new cousin with big round eyes. Strange things were surely happening and there was a vague feeling of lonesomeness in her heart. She had never before been separated from Winston, her brother.
After the rather hurried meal, Micky, whom Babs had notified, drove up with the bus and Virginia accompanied Eleanor and Peggy. The other girls agreed that Virg was the right one to go. “For who can be a greater comfort if the surprise should be a sad one?” Megsy asked them.
But it was not. It was so wonderful a surprise that it was almost hard to believe that it had really happened.