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Show ,g U:bcl.etter ll'Il> llose anl> $1!1let "Listen, girls!" Madame's cheeks were pink with excitement as she sat down with the letter, which had been written in Paris. .. MY DEAR MADAME fRANCESCA: "• At last we are coming home-Allison and I. The boy has a fancy to see Spring come again on his native heath, so we shall sail earlier than we had otherwise planned. "'I wonder, my dearfriend, if I dare ask you to open the house for us? I am so tired of hotels that I want to go straight back. You have the keys and if you will engage the proper number of servants and see that the place is made habitable, 1 shall be more than ever your debtor. I will cable you when we start. '"Trusting that all is well with you and yours and with many thanks, believe me, my dear Madame, "'Most faithfully yours, "'RICHARD KENi.'" "How like a man," smiled Rose. "That house has been dosed for over ten years, and he thinks there is nothing to be done but to ununlock the front door and engage two or three servants who may or may not be trustworthy." "What an imposition!" Isabel said. "Aunt Francesca, didn't I meet Allison Kent when 1 was here before?" " I 've forgotten." Wlelcome l:lome "Don't you remember? Mother brought me here once when 1 was a little tot. We stayed about a week and the roses were all in bloom. 1 can see the garden now. Allison used to come over sometimes and tell me fairy stories. He told me that the long, slender gold-trimmed bottles tilled with attar of roses came from the roots of the rose bushes-don't you remember? And 1 pulled up rose bushes all over the garden to find out." u Dear me, yes," smiled Aunt Francesca. "How time does fly!" "You were very cross with Allison-that is, as cross as you ever could be. It seemed so queer for you to be angry at him and not at me, for 1 pulled up the bushes." "You were sufficiently punished, Isabel. 1 believe the thorns hurt your little hands, didn't they?" "They certainly did," responded the girl, with a little shudder at the recollection. "I have a scar still. That was-let me seewhy, it was fifteen years ago!" "Just before 1 came to live with Aunt Franccsca," said Rose. "You and your mother went away the same day." "Yes, we went in the morning," Isabel continued, "and you were to come in the afternoon. 1 remember pleading with my mother to let me stay long enough to see 'Cousin Wose.'" 19 Mtmorlu' from ltbll~~ |
