Then resuming the reading—
"but Papa says he will get me a new one, and I shall see that nobody gets that away from me. You never will see me again, Sue, but you will have those common Harts; I supose they will be glad enouf to take up with you again.
"So I remain, Miss Penrose,
"Yours truly,
"Miss Clarice Stephanotis Packard."
Sue's eyes remained fixed on the paper; her cheeks glowed with shame and mortification; she could not meet her friends' eyes. There was a moment of dead silence; then came a sound that made her look up hastily, blushing still deeper.
"Why! why, you are all laughing!" she cried.
"My dear, of course we are laughing!" cried Mary, catching her in her arms. "What should we do but laugh? And we are glad to take up with you again, aren't we, boys?"
"Rather!" said Tom. "Why, Sue, it's been only half living without our Quicksilver."
"Have you really missed me?" cried poor Sue. "Oh, Tom! Of course I know Mary has, because I know how wretched I have been, really, all the time, even at first, when I didn't know it. But you, too, and Teddy? Oh, I am so glad! so glad! And now there are five of us, aren't there, Lily?"
Lily answered with a warm caress. She knew privately that she was the happiest of the five, but she did not know how to say it.