CHAPTER VI.[ToC]
THE MAGIC DOOR.
When Miss Brown said of the Big Front Door that it made her cheerful simply to look at it, she had no idea, nor had anyone else, how much was going to grow out of it.
First of all was the story Uncle William told one stormy Sunday evening before the wood fire in the library.
It had been a trying day to the children, with the rain coming steadily down, their father away, and Aunt Zélie sick with a cold. Perhaps it was not to be wondered at that by afternoon they had grown "cantankerous," as Sukey expressed it, and that something very like quarrelling had gone on in the star chamber.
This was all forgotten when the early tea was over, and they gathered around the fire with Uncle William in father's arm-chair.
The shadows were dark in the corners of the room, but the soft wavering light gilded everything within reach, touching Grandfather's portrait with its gentle magic, till he himself seemed to be standing there, smiling and about to speak. The young faces turned to Uncle William were full of quiet content.