"We must watch for a lady in a linen suit with black hat," she said to
Nellie; "she's a stranger."
That very minute the linen suit appeared.
"Oh, oh!" screamed Nellie, unable to get her words. "There is my mother!" and the next thing Dorothy knew, Nellie was trying to "wear the same linen dress" that the stranger appeared in—at least, that was how Dorothy afterwards told about Nellie's meeting with her mother.
"My daughter!" exclaimed the lady, "I have been so lonely I came to bring you home."
"And this is Dorothy," said Nellie, recovering herself. "Dorothy is my best friend, next to Nan."
"You have surely been among good friends," declared the mother, "for you have gotten the roses back in your cheeks again. How well you do look!"
"Oh, I've had a perfectly fine time," declared Nellie.
"Fine and dandy," repeated Dorothy, unable to restrain her fun-making spirit.
At a glance Dorothy saw why Nellie, although poor, was so genteel, for her mother was one of those fine-featured women that seem especially fitted to say gentle things to children.
Mrs. McLaughlin was not old,—no older than Nan's mother,—and she had that wonderful wealth of brown hair, just like Nellie's. Her eyes were brown, too, while Nellie's were blue, but otherwise Nellie was much like her mother, so people said.