“Yes, yes, my dear,” laughed Mr. Martin; “I wasn’t censuring. Where there is a furnace there is dust. But the coffee—”
Hester and Anna had already disappeared, and soon they came back with the coffee and some lovely fresh doughnuts and bread and butter. Daisy and I had just a tiny scrap of doughnut, but Niger ate half a dozen.
“Mother,” said Mary, “I want to go down and sleep in my little bed with Niger in his box beside me, as he used to do. It will seem like old times.”
“Very well, my child,” said our Missie, and she went downstairs herself, tucked her daughter in bed, and hovered over her like a great
bird, for Niger, who at once became friends with us, told us all about it in the morning.
“Would, oh, would Third Cousin Annie leave Niger with us?” was the question, and “What, oh, what would Billie say to him when she came home?”
CHAPTER XXIII
THIRD COUSIN ANNIE
THIRD COUSIN ANNIE was a very grand person, and very rich, and her limousine drew up before our door in the middle of the next morning.
She flew into the house and greeted Niger most effusively, and Mrs. Martin and our Mary quite calmly.