“Your mother reminded me, Miss Ann.”
As soon as Ann’s toilet was properly made, according to Adeline’s notion rather than to Ann’s, she hurried to her grandmother’s room and rapped. Nancy, smiling broadly, opened the door, and beyond were the open arms of Grandmother.
“Dear child, dear child! How glad I am to see you! Your Grandmother is getting so she can scarcely spare you any more!”
“Good, Grandmother! It is fine to hear that. I hope that we can be together except in school time, and we might even manage that sometimes, if you would come oftener.”
“When you go to Paris to study, I’ll go with you,” laughed Grandmother. She waved Ann to a seat near her and asked to hear the latest school news. How glad Ann was that there were no more things to be explained, no more uncertain strivings to find and destroy the cause of misunderstanding. “Your father seems to be having a pleasant visit,” said Madam LeRoy proudly.
“I never saw Dad look happier,” agreed Ann. “We are all happy,—I hope.” Ann added that, for she wondered about Aunt Sue. “It will be a wonderful Christmas time. Why, Maury brought us home in the ‘family sleigh,’ so pretty, with its curves and fine fittings!”
“Did you like it? That old sleigh has quite a history. I will tell you some of it this vacation, when there is an opportunity. But tell me more about those girls,—the Jolly Six, is it, or have you more in numbers, as you had in Montana last summer?”
“The Jolly Six still exists, but they are not all of my friends, by any means. We have had a wonderful time, rushing girls for the ‘Bats’ and ‘Owls,’ and Suzanne is so much happier and better off in the new suite.”
“I never liked her friendship with Madeline Birch,” said Madam LeRoy, “but I did not like to insist on her rooming with you last year, after Sue explained the arrangement, though it was largely for your sake that I let it alone. Although you and Suzanne are cousins, and Suzanne is a dear child, it does not necessarily follow that relationship makes people congenial. So it was that I did not interfere.”