“She hasn’t done anything,” explained Jane. “They are just talking about where Mrs. Hartwell-Jones is going to send her to school this fall. I heard Mrs. Hartwell-Jones say something about it to grandmother the last time we were there.”
“Oh, is that all!” exclaimed Christopher indifferently, and lost his interest in the subject immediately.
But, if the twins had known it, Mr. and Mrs. Baker were discussing something much more interesting than Letty’s school, and that was, Letty’s whole future. Grandmother had had a very short, very happy note from Mrs. Hartwell-Jones just before leaving for the picnic. It seemed that the “lady who wrote books,” after a great deal of discussion with her lawyer, a long letter from Mrs. Baker, the twins’ mother, some correspondence with Mrs. Drake (whose whereabouts Mrs. Hartwell-Jones had had a good deal of trouble to discover), and finally a personal visit from her lawyer, had resolved definitely upon the great step of making Letty her own little girl.
As soon as they were alone, grandmother gave Mrs. Hartwell-Jones’s note to grandfather to read. It began with the announcement of the author-lady’s decision, included an invitation for the picnickers to stop at her house on their way home for congratulations and supper, and wound up with the request that she be allowed to tell the twins the news herself.
“I want to see Janey’s face,” she wrote, “when she learns what a wonderful thing has come to me out of her little idea of being helpful to a fellow mortal. May the dear child grow up to be as tender and thoughtful a woman as she is a little girl! She will undoubtedly be greatly and widely beloved.”
“Isn’t it beautiful the way she speaks of our Janey?” said grandmother with tears in her eyes, when grandfather had finished reading the note.
“Does Letty know yet?” he asked.
“She is to tell her this afternoon, and we are to stop in on our way home from the picnic to rejoice with them. You see she invites us all to supper.”
“That will please Kit,” smiled his grandfather. “You have not given Jane a suspicion of it?”
“Of course not. Don’t you see that Mrs. Hartwell-Jones wants the pleasure of telling her herself, or let Letty do it. I wonder what Letty said and did when she was told, and what they are saying about it now?”