“O Mother! I shall hear you sing!”
“And you shall sing yourself, perhaps.”
“No, Jannet is going to be a missionary,” smiled Uncle Pieter. “So she told me.”
But Mrs. Eldon only patted Jannet’s hand and told her that it was a noble purpose. “We shall see about the future, my child, but I shall accept your invitation to stay here, Pieter, for the present. I am not real sure but all this is a dream.”
Coffee, sandwiches and some of Daphne’s latest triumph in the line of white cake and frosting were brought in by old P’lina’s capable hands, so glad to serve the older Jannet once more; and while they refreshed themselves Jannet told her mother many things about her school and her dearest friends, Miss Hilliard, Miss Marcy and Lina in particular. “We must invite them all to come here as soon as school is out,” said Uncle Pieter. “Miss Hilliard is Jannet’s guardian and there will be things to arrange. I tried to trace what had become of what would have been Jannet’s little fortune, but without success, of course.”
“I had turned everything into available funds,” said Mrs. Eldon, “but there is still enough for us both.”
There was a nap for them all after the little lunch. Then came the exciting morrow, with breakfast and the surprise of Cousin Andy, Cousin Di and Jan, and later the visit of Mr. and Mrs. Murray, Mrs. Eldon’s friends. Jannet almost shivered to think how nearly she had missed seeing her mother, as the circumstances of the delay and of her hesitation were related. Mr. and Mrs. Murray, whom Jannet senior called Francis and Lydia, warned her against giving up her profession and told the glowing Jannet junior about her mother’s beautiful voice.
Jan telephoned the news to Nell and Chick and stopped Jannet in the hall one time to ask her, “How about the fortune that old Grandma Meer told you? I guess that you’ll get the long trip to Europe with your mother, and how about the ‘luck when you are found’?”
Jannet beamed upon her cousin who was so kindly in his sympathy. “I still don’t believe in ‘fortunes,’ and neither do you, Mister Jan, but it is funny how they hit it sometimes, isn’t it?”
It was after two blissful and thrilling days that Jannet thought of the pearls, when her mother opened the desk to write a letter. Jannet had been examining the knot hole in the panels where she had seen the light on one of those exciting nights of which she had been telling her mother; but she came to stand by her mother a moment and a vision of the pearls flashed before her.