Ann was eager to have her mother once inside of the old home and watched her lovingly from time to time.
“No,” her grandmother was saying, “I was not interested in Sue’s plan to go abroad. I do not want to go myself, and I did not feel like sacrificing myself this time, probably financing the whole thing. It will be much better to have a Christmas reunion here, if William can come on from Montana, as we hope; then we can spend the rest of the season in Florida. I have not been there for years.”
Ann wondered who would go, the older folks, of course, with, perhaps, Madge and Roy.
“What do you think of the place?” asked Madam LeRoy, as the chauffeur drove them into the drive.
“Beautiful,” said Mrs. Sterling, a smile on her face, as she looked at the familiar grounds, changed a little, to be sure, but the same, with the great trees, the old lilac and syringa bushes, the flower beds in much the same places. “There is more shrubbery and some of the young trees have grown into large ones,” Mrs. Sterling continued. “But there is the old arbor,—oh, it is good to see it again, Mother!” Mrs. Sterling’s eyes filled as she looked, and without apology she drew out her dainty handkerchief to wipe them.
Madam LeRoy looked at her daughter with some tenderness. “All this absence and misunderstanding was needless. I hope that I may remember that, to keep me strong enough in dealing with Sue.” This she said in a low tone, not to be overheard by the chauffeur.
Mrs. Tyson had had the good taste not to go to the station to meet them, nor was she outside, nor in the hall. A beaming Munson was at the door with a man and a maid or two to take the luggage and orders from the travelers. “Mrs. Tyson was called to the village, Madam,” said Munson, “on a matter of business. She left her apologies and said that she would be back before dinner.”
“Thank you. You may send Rose to me, please. I left Nancy at her friend’s in the village. Attend to her baggage, also, and did you see to engaging a maid for Mrs. Sterling?”