After Miss Sarah Leigh and her aunt arrived there was no more silence; it had no charms for either of these ladies. Charlotte had at first felt something like contempt for a person so odd as Miss Sarah, who wore skirts short enough to display to advantage her serviceable shoes, and poked her head out when she walked. But if Miss Sarah had no pretensions to beauty or style, her face was pleasant, her eyes really fine, and her smile full of kindly humor. Charlotte learned from Aunt Virginia that Miss Sarah had an unusual number of distinguished ancestors, which went to show how little appearance can be relied on in such matters.
Mrs. Leigh suggested a bit of pretty old china of a pattern grown rare. Her eyes were bright, there was a hint of pink in her cheeks, and the silvery puffs beneath her lace cap had the exactness born of long years of training in the way they should go. When she walked, it was with a lightness wonderful in a woman of seventy-eight.
Before the Leighs were fairly seated one or two others dropped in, until it seemed quite like a called meeting of the neighborhood. Aunt Caroline was in the chair which, on this occasion, happened to be placed where the rosy glow from a shaded lamp fell becomingly on her soft gray draperies. Aunt Virginia fluttered about, constantly interrupting conversation with footstools or sofa cushions, or irrelevant remarks.
"Miss Virginia is always wondering if one more cushion or some other chair would not make you a little more comfortable," said Alex, as that lady appeared after her sixth excursion to the hall, this time with a light shawl for Mrs. Leigh's rheumatic shoulder.
"Do come and sit down, Virginia," laughed Miss Sarah; "you have no repose of manner."
"It is very fortunate that so many of us happen to be together this evening," began Mrs. Millard, "for I think we should decide upon our course in regard to the shop." Her white hand, veiled in a fall of lace, made a slight motion in the direction of the corner.
"Don't you want some chocolate candy?" asked Miss Virginia, in an audible aside to Miss Sarah. "Charlotte and I made some this afternoon."
"When we have decided the fate of the shop," the lady whispered back.
"Seriously," continued Mrs. Millard, turning toward her sister with a slight frown, "should we not take some action?"
"You are right, Caroline. In my day shops kept to their own territory," Mrs. Leigh responded. "I remember the colonel used to say—but there! I promised Sarah I wouldn't tell any stories this evening. She says I bore people."