"Yes, Miss Chelda," they repeated, without enthusiasm. "She comes often. Rebecca loves her."
"Rebecca has cause to," muttered Miss Gastonguay. "I suspect a good many of Chelda's silver pieces find their way into her bag of a pocket," then, sinking back on the sofa, she allowed her eyes to wander about the room.
There were no grand apartments at Number 50 Blaine Street, no luxuries in the way of furnishings and decorations, but the small house possessed something that many of the finer houses of the town could not boast of,—an air of quiet cheerfulness and homeliness that made Miss Gastonguay murmur restlessly, "The woman who presides here is happier than I am."
"You know the history of that eldest girl," she said, when the two children ran away to hang up their caps and jackets.
"Yes,—she was taken out of some dreadful house in this town."
"A house—a den, and in it her childish eyes once witnessed a murder. One would never think it to look at her now. Mary Potts Negus is a genius at rescuing and bringing up children. One would fancy that she had had enough trouble in raising her own and settling them in life."
The two girls soon returned. One of them, Marion, excused herself on the plea of housewifely duties; the other, Bessie, remained with her callers, and in a gentle and motherly manner received the other children as they came in.
The baby of the family, laughing and crowing with delight, arrived first on the shoulder of the eldest lad, who had been giving him an airing on a hand-sled. This child, Bessie drew to the fire, and with careful fingers divested him of manifold wraps, much interrupted during the process by his persistence in throwing his arms around her neck.
Following the baby and the lad came two other boys, orphan twins deserted by their parents and adopted by the charitable Mrs. Negus. They stopped long enough in the hall to pull off the fur caps drawn down over their foreheads, then, with unmitigated pleasure overspreading their freckled faces, they, too, entered the room, and greeted Miss Gastonguay with deference, and Derrice with an air of comradeship.
Miss Gastonguay stared with interest at them, while Derrice said,"What have you been doing to-day, boys?"