Renée, indeed, was a different child. She had grown taller, sturdier, her face had lost its delicacy of line and color; now she had, too, in her step and look the spirit and vigor that only healthy, happy living can give.
Suddenly Aunt Pen exclaimed: "Goodness me, Renée, we've forgotten to tell about----"
"The Lost Baby!" cried Pat
So there were new surprises all around! It seemed more like a fairy story than ever--to find, in a few hours, a grandmother and a brother! Emile was deeply interested; he listened gravely. He knew perhaps more of his mother's sacrifices and hardships than Renée had known; for a moment, deep in his heart, he found it hard to feel kindly toward the proud woman who had made his mother unhappy. Then as Aunt Pen described her lonely life in the old house, the dreary days shut in with her grief and her remorse, just as Renée had, he felt a wave of tenderness.
"She is going to begin right away making the old house bright and pretty and nice to live in! And think how happy she'll be to know Emile has come back!" cried Renée.
"Well, it looks as though I was the one who had lost out all around," broke in Capt. Allan, although he did not look one bit unhappy as he said it. In fact, his eyes were fastened on Aunt Pen's face with a sort of eager questioning in them that kept the blushes coming and going on her cheeks. "I thought I had gotten together a nice little family! However, I shall go on with my plan of fixing up that old place in the mountains and maybe, sometime, I can induce my ward and her brother and her grandmother to make a poor, lonely ex-guardian a visit!"
"And me!" put in Pat, eagerly, for she was certain he was in earnest.
"And me!" laughed Aunt Pen with a look that seemed to flash back an answer to Capt. Allan.
"I think you girlies had better go to bed!" Mr. Everett had noticed that Renée's eyes were looking very tired. She had had a most exciting day. And on the morrow she must go again to the grandmother's with Emile.
Pat consented to go to bed only when Capt. Allan and Emile promised to spend the night with them!