"Isn't it a darling! And look at that pretty dress goods! That is all the rage now."
"Chrystie, see Kitty's new shoes. Aren't they fine?"
"A whole outfit," murmured Grace, half enviously.
"Yes, and here is an envelope, Puss," added Carrie. "That ought to tell who sent it."
Tabitha mechanically broke the seal of the envelope bearing her name in the same writing as that on the outside of the box, and a twenty dollar bill dropped into her lap. "That is all there is in it," she said, shaking the paper again. "No, it isn't. Here is a little scrap which reads, 'For dressmaker's bills'. Now isn't that provoking!"
"Provoking!" echoed Chrystobel. "I should call it luck!"
"Oh, I didn't mean the money and things. Those are splendid. But isn't it a shame not to know where they came from?"
"Why, didn't your brother send them?" asked Bertha in surprise, for she had been so deeply engrossed with her own gifts that only snatches of her companions' conversation had reached her.
"No, that isn't a bit like his writing, you see; and besides, he couldn't afford such things."
"Maybe Tom's letter tells," Carrie ventured. "Why don't you read it and see?"