“The boys are dears, of course,” she added. “But I should love to have had a daughter.”
Anne was silent a moment. Then with a sudden inspiration, she thought of Sylvia.
“Where’s your luggage?” inquired Hugh. “Bless my soul, I’d forgotten it! You’re going to stay with us, Anne, of course?”
“Your room is all ready,” Alice assured her rather timidly.
“I was going back to-day, and coming to you later. But if I may send for my things from the hotel, I should like to stay a little while. There’s a child I know, a girl I must help out of a difficulty, and I find it will take a little time.”
She told them Sylvia’s story, and noticed with satisfaction that Alice seemed interested.
“Poor silly child!” she exclaimed. “She ought to be taken care of. She ought to live in some nice family.”
Anne made a mental note, but at the moment said nothing.
XXII
Two or three days later, she was back at Fairholme Court.