"Your rooms are up here, Edward," said my mother. Helen and I followed her upstairs hand in hand. My sister tagged along in the rear. We were shown into a cozy little bedroom, with a cozier study off it. The windows looked out into the bit of garden which I had guessed was there. All my books and furniture were arranged as I had always had them, but in the bedroom there were several new things for Helen. A little box of a dressing room completed our quarters, which were tiny but ours. Helen's eyes lighted as she looked around. Then she walked straight up to my mother and kissed her. My mother received it coldly, making no return. Helen was so delighted with all that had been done for her that I don't think she noticed.
"Are you pleased, Ted?" my mother asked.
"Of course, mother. Why do you ask?"
Chitty arrived, bowed beneath a trunk. My mother and sister left us. The total of our baggage swamped our little rooms. It was all in at last and the door closed. The belated Sims arrived with hot water, just as Helen had seated herself on my lap in the study for a talk.
"Anything else I can fetch you, Mrs. Ted?" Sims inquired. We got her out of the way.
"Mrs. Ted!" Helen cried gleefully,—"what a delicious name for me! I love it!"
"Old Sims is a privileged character, dear. She is one of my earliest recollections. She is also the family safety-valve. Every one curses her when anything goes wrong."
Helen laughed. "What a delightfully absurd country, Ted. Imagine a Deep Harbor servant being any one's earliest recollection."
She began that feminine mystery known as "changing," still talking to me over her shoulder.
"Ted, I'll have to pinch myself—I can't believe I'm awake. Is it all really true?"