The clang of the door-bell broke on her unfinished words, and in the next moment a servant had entered with a note. Natalia took it from the salver, and glanced at the address, drawing her brows together, as if in recollection. The others waited silently impatient.
"Do open it, Natalia," Millicent cried. "I know it's another wedding present. Won't you read it aloud?"
Natalia still held the note in her hand, thoughtfully regarding it.
"I'm trying to remember whose writing it is. It's very familiar. Oh, I know now! It's Sargent Everett's."
She tore open the envelope, letting it fall to the floor as she hurriedly read the note. When she looked up again, the tears were streaming down her face.
"He has sent me the most precious wedding present in the world," she cried with a sob in her voice. "He has given Mammy back to me!"
She ran through the dining-room, and down the full length of the hall, and out on to the front porch, throwing herself into the old slave's arms.
"He has given you to me, Mammy! He has given you to me! You're mine—you dear old Mammy Dicey! Come on upstairs to my room, and tell me all about it. Mammy, I'm getting everything in the world to-day. Isn't it wonderful? And now you've come back to me!"
She pulled the old woman up the steps beside her, and into the big room where they had spent many hours together.
It was about dusk, and the room was in the quiet gloom of twilight. Natalia locked the door after they had entered, and pushing a big arm chair close beside the bed, she led Dicey who stood in the centre of the room, dazed into forgetfulness by the familiar objects about her, to it, and made her sit down while she threw herself on the bed and drew the old slave's hands into both her own.