“I haven’t any wish,” responded Barbara. “I am too happy to be troubled with wishes.”
“Then suppose I wish for you, Bab?” suggested Ruth. “Go back to your own sweet dreams. I’ll wake you when the wish comes true.”
Presently the four girls were sipping their fruit lemonades like the rest of the world at Palm Beach. On the breeze the sound of music was wafted to them from a morning concert in the distance.
“Where is Aunt Sallie?” Ruth suddenly asked, again interrupting her father’s reading. “This place has bewitched me so that I have forgotten even my beloved aunt. This is the land of dreams, I do believe. We are all spirits from some happy world.”
“Here comes your spirit aunt,” returned Mr. Stuart, smiling. “She has evidently been spirited away by some other friendly spirits.”
The girls laughed as they saw the substantial figure of Miss Sallie Stuart strolling down the piazza. She was walking between two other persons, one a tall, middle-aged man with dark hair slightly tinged with gray, the other a young woman. They were all three talking animatedly.
“Girls, look!” exclaimed Ruth, in suppressed excitement. “Aunt Sallie is with that Maud Warren. You remember we met her at Lenox, Bab, and she tried to ride you down in the famous race. Delightful creature—to keep away from.” Ruth gave a contemptuous sniff, then added. “That nice looking man must be her father.”
“She looks as haughty as ever, and then some more,” said Mollie aggressively.
The girls giggled softly, then straightened their faces for the trio was almost upon them, and it was not safe to indulge in further conversation.
After seeing that his charges were supplied with lemonade, Mr. Stuart had returned to his paper.