Ruth and Alice liked the farmer's wife at once. There was a stoop to her shoulders that told of many weary days of work, and she looked worn and tired, but there was a bright welcome in her eyes as she greeted the visitors. "Pa Felix," as Sandy called his father, was rather old and feeble.
"Come right in and make yourselves to home," urged Mrs. Apgar. "Your rooms is all ready for ye!"
"Where is the bell-boy?" asked Miss Pennington, with uptilted head and powdered nose. "I want him to take my valise to my room at once. And I shall want a bath before dinner."
"Isn't she horrid, to try to put on such airs here?" said Alice to Ruth, nodding in the direction of the vaudeville actress.
"Yes. She only does it to make trouble."
Sandy and his father were talking together in low tones in one corner of the big parlor.
"You didn't get any word; did you?" asked the old man.
"No, Pa. There wasn't no letter."
"Then we won't git th' money."
"It don't look so."