hat do you think?" cried Rose, bursting into the school-room. "Everard is coming home."
"Oh, is he? I'm so glad," returned Alice.
"Yes; mamma had a letter to-day. He is better, and is coming home for change of air and mamma's good nursing. It was not Everard who wrote the letter, but the doctor, who is coming with him as far as Markham, and papa is to meet them there."
"When?" inquired Alice.
"To-morrow."
"And papa is away."
"Oh, he will be back to-night. Why, there is a carriage; I wonder who it is," she exclaimed, running to the window.
"How can you be so silly, Rose," interposed Isabel.
"Oh, it is Everard," she shouted, without heeding Isabel's remonstrance, "and that must be the Doctor. Oh, I'm so glad Everard has come," and she danced about the room with glee.
"Rose, what a noisy child you are!" exclaimed Isabel, going to the window with the rest; but when she saw the Doctor, she became deadly pale, and had to lean against the window frame for support, but she had ample time to recover herself, as they were all too much occupied to observe her.