"But——but we won't be in the same house at night. Father Hartley's cottage is as far from the convent as——as——"
"Why, pet, it is right on the convent grounds, not more than two hundred yards away."
"But you can't come when I am asleep and kiss me good-night."
"Whatever put such an idea into your head? So you think I go prowling about the house at night at the risk of waking you and having you think I am a burglar?"
"If you don't come, Uncle, I must dream that you do; but it seems very strange that I should have the same dream every night at the same time."
"If you are asleep, how do you know the time?"
"W——ell, I must wake up a little, for I hear the big clock at the foot of the stairs strike ten just after you have gone."
"Just after I have gone! So you take it for granted that I do go into your room every night, eh? then why not prove it? At Maryvale, I can not possibly go to you at ten o'clock at night." The Doctor was more than anxious that the little girl should accept the invitation, for he well knew how very lonely this Christmas would be for her at home. "I was so sure that you would like to go, that I have made plans for a jolly time. One of them is that we shall send that big, old-fashioned sleigh, which has stood in the barn for years, out to Maryvale, and I shall take you and your little friends for a sleigh ride every day. Perhaps Aunt Mary and some of the Sisters could go with you. And then we could help Santa Claus in regard to the tree and some gifts for those little girls who do not go home for Christmas. If we do go, Gene will be able to spend Christmas at her own home. Don't you think you had better sleep over it, Goldilocks, before sending your regrets to Mother Johanna? You might change your mind when it is too late."
But the thought of making the holidays happier for the little girls who could not go home and, more than all, for Gene, was quite enough to win Mary over to her uncle's view of the matter.
"I have already changed my mind, Uncle. We won't send our regrets."