"My brother has much business to attend to, and will have a great deal of travelling before he can settle down. There is no one but myself to look after Norah. What can I do but stay with the child?"
"Bring her here, I should say," suggested Mina. "By all accounts she knows very little of her native country, for she went to India a tiny child, came back, lost her mother, and since then has wandered to and fro on the earth under her aunt's wing. May she come here, Dick, and enjoy a summer holiday in England?"
"I can have no objection, dear. In fact, it is the best possible solution to the difficulty. Then we shall get our dear little house-mother back again, and as soon as Colonel Pease can spare time for a rest he shall come too, if he will. Mere Side will be a real home for him amongst you girls, until he can fix on one for himself. He means to buy a handsome place somewhere."
Miss Pease was delighted when the cordial invitation came, and actually written in Gertrude's hand. She was longing for the dear niece to meet the girls to whom she was so warmly attached, and she was utterly weary of hotel life after a fortnight's experience, and with but little of her brother's society, owing to unavoidable causes. So she sent a grateful acceptance on North's behalf, and herself carried to Mere Side a message from Colonel Pease, who promised to spend his first spare week there.
The little lady was warmly welcomed by the Whitmore girls on her return, and her niece was also received in a manner that charmed both. They were all, however, surprised to find that the new guest, though a girl, was about Mina's age, instead of Molly's.
The latter expressed what the rest felt when, after embracing Miss Pease with equal vigour and affection, she exclaimed, "Why, your niece is a grown-up young lady. I thought she was a girl like me, and that we should all call her Norah."
"She will be very much distressed if you call her anything else," said the girl herself. "I am very sorry for the misapprehension, but you must please not blame my aunt for it. The mistake she made was not a wilful one."
"The fact is, Molly dear, that I never calculated on Norah being grown-up any more than you did, but kept picturing her as very much the same as when I last saw her, forgetting that Time had not stood still with the child any more than with the rest of us."
They felt that Miss Pease had been herself mistaken, and when she added, "You must not like my Norah any less on account of her aunt's blunder," a chorus of welcoming words came from the girls, after which the young guest was conveyed to her room.
"I think she is one of the most charming young creatures I ever saw," said Jo, and Mina echoed the expression.