“To go to the station to meet my cousins and the Keiths, if I can be spared,” returned Ethel, with a smile that told of a light and happy heart.
“Yes, indeed, you are at liberty to go,” was the kindly rejoinder; “I was sure you would wish to, and so have engaged your friend Carry Brown to take your place in the store here for to-day.”
Ethel expressed her warm thanks, adding, “I will see that everything about the store is in perfect order before I go, and will show Carry the places of things likely to be called for.”
“That will be well,” returned Mrs. Baker, as they left the table together.
Ethel was flitting about the store, dusting and putting things in place, humming a tune in the gladness of her heart at the thought that the war was over and the poor, weary, homesick soldiers about to be restored to their dear ones—particularly that her cousins George and Albert, were expected among the arrivals that day—when, glancing through the window, she saw the postman coming.
She ran to the door to meet him. He handed her a letter bearing her own name in the well-known handwriting of her kind friend, Mrs. Donald Keith. Ethel hastened to break the seal and read the enclosed note.
It was a brief one, telling her that they—Mr. and Mrs. Keith—would be in Philadelphia that morning in time to meet the train from Washington on which their brother, Colonel Rupert Keith, and his wife and two nephews, Stuart Ormsby and Percy Landreth, were expected to arrive. They would probably be at the depot for an hour or more before the Washington train would come in, and would be pleased to have Ethel spend that hour there with them, if she could be spared from the store.
This was good news to Ethel, who had not for months seen Mrs. Keith, one of the best and kindest friends she and her orphan brother and sisters had ever known.
She made haste with what must be done before leaving the store to Miss Brown’s care, then hurried to the depot, reaching it some minutes ere the train from New Jersey was due; so that she and Mrs. Keith had time for a good long chat before the arrival of that from Washington, bringing their homeward bound soldier friends and relatives.
It came at last, there was a joyous meeting between the Keith brothers and other relatives, then the young men shook hands with Ethel, remembering having met her before on their way to the seat of war.