"Next time you"ll take me, won"t you, father?" Frances asked.
"Yes, indeed. Wink, I believe you have grown a foot! You"ll soon be a young lady, and I don"t like it; people will begin to think your mother and I are elderly, when we are really in the heyday of youth."
In this irrelevant fashion conversation went on through the day. There were all the winter experiences to be related, and Frances could not rest till each person in the house had been brought in to see her father. First of all Mr. Clark ran up to say how glad he was to see the traveller back again; and on her way to school Miss Moore looked in with a merry greeting; then Emma and the General were waylaid in the hall and introduced, the former in a dreadful fit of shyness; and last, Miss Sherwin was pounced upon and dragged reluctantly into the sitting room.
To her Mr. Morrison"s return meant the breaking up of the pleasant companionship of the winter, and she was not in the least glad to see him. Mrs. Morrison"s exclamation as she entered was somewhat disconcerting.
"Jack, I want you to know Lillian, she has been so good to me!"
"Good! I?" Miss Sherwin cried in a tone that made them all laugh, and then her hand was given a cordial grasp by a tall man with a boyish face, who said, "We shall have to take each other on sufferance, Miss Sherwin, till we can find out for ourselves how much truth there is in what our friends say of us."
"I am very glad we came here; it has really been a delightful winter,--all but those two dreadful days when Frances was so ill,--but I don"t think I can ever let you go again," Mrs. Morrison said. It was after lunch, and Frances had gone to get ready for a walk with her father.
"Then, will you go to New York with me next week?" asked her husband.
"I may have to stand that. It will depend on how soon we must leave here permanently. Jack, there is one rather strange thing I must tell you--"
but just here Frances danced in, and her mother did not finish her sentence.
When they returned from their walk late in the afternoon they stopped in the shop for a moment to speak to Mr. Clark. Peterkin was the only person to be seen, but the door into the study stood open, and, supposing the Spectacle Man was there, Frances and her father entered.
Some one was standing before the mantel looking up at the portrait of Washington, and Frances gave an exclamation of surprise, for it was not the optician, but, of all persons, Mrs. Marvin!
It was not very light, and for a second she thought she must be mistaken, then something very strange happened. Mrs. Marvin turned, and with a little cry stepped forward, holding out her hands appealingly.
"Jack, O Jack!" she said.
The astonished child saw the light in her father"s eyes as he exclaimed, "Auntie!" and then his arms were around her, her cheek pressed to his.
"Jack, I have wanted you so;" the words came with a sob.
"Dear auntie, I am so glad!"
Mrs. Marvin was not one to lose her self-control for long; she presently lifted her head, with one hand on his shoulder she looked at him. "You have not changed," she said, "but I have grown old."
In truth, she was very white now the first flush of excitement was fading, and with gentle hands Jack put her into the shabby leather chair, and drew another to her side.
"I wonder if I shall wake and find it a dream," she said, smiling up at him.
"It is better than any dream," he answered, bending over her.
"I have been so lonely,--it has been so long. I thought perhaps you had forgotten, and-- I am sorry-- Jack." It was the proud woman"s surrender, and John Morrison was touched to the heart. Tears rose to his eyes.
"It was more my fault than yours, dear,--the years have taught me that, and I have often wished I could tell you so," he said.
Frances had stood an amazed spectator of this scene. What did it mean?
Ought she to stay? It was plain she was forgotten. After a little she touched her father"s arm, saying softly, "Daddy, I"m here, you know."
The plaintive tone recalled both her companions; her father drew her to his side, but before he could speak Mrs. Marvin took her hand.
"Frances darling, you will love me, won"t you? You are my own little niece. The day when I first saw you in my library you reminded me of my dear Jack."
It was Mr. Morrison"s turn to be surprised as his daughter impulsively threw her arms round the lady"s neck, exclaiming, "I do love you, but I didn"t know you knew father."
"And I didn"t know you knew each other," he said.
"And I don"t understand how you happened to come here," added his aunt.
"Why, we live here, Mrs. Marvin," Frances replied.
"Mrs. Marvin!" echoed Mr. Morrison.
"That is a mistake which I encouraged because I wanted to see more of her," his aunt said; adding, "Is this really the house of the Spectacle Man?"
There was so much to be explained it seemed almost hopeless; Mr. Clark came in and went out again un.o.bserved. It was not an opportune time for selling candlesticks, evidently.
"We will not try to unravel the tangle all at once," Mr. Morrison said, rising. "Auntie, will you come upstairs? I want you to meet Katherine."
This was hardest of all. It brought back one of her old disappointments; and without doubt Katherine Morrison was aware how Jack"s aunt felt about his marriage, but she did not hesitate. It was not her custom to do things by halves.
Mrs. Morrison, sitting in the twilight lost in happy thoughts, was aroused by Frances" excited voice: "Mother, what do you think has happened?"
Surprised at sight of the stranger, she rose; her husband met her and drew her forward: "Auntie, this is my wife, to whom I owe my greatest happiness."
His aunt understood. This fair, girlish looking little person filled the first place in his heart; whatever else was changed, this was not.
"You must try to love me for Jack"s sake," she said, taking Katherine"s hand with that new gentleness her nephew found so touching.
It won his wife. "I shall not have to try," she answered.
"Are you willing to forget and begin again?--that is what we are going to do, is it not, Jack?" his aunt looked from his wife to him. "It will make a great difference in my life," she continued; "I have been very lonely, and I want this little girl;" she put her arm around Frances.
"Then she will certainly have to take us, too; won"t she, Katherine?"
and Mr. Morrison laughed happily.
Frances still seemed puzzled. "If this is my Aunt Frances--" she said slowly, "who is the little girl? Is she the Girl in the Golden Doorway, truly?--the portrait, I mean.
"I think she must be, and she is also your great-grandmother," her aunt replied.
"Then who is a Certain Person. You said he was abroad, father." Frances evidently thought it time all mysteries were solved.
"Why, yes, auntie, how does it happen you are not abroad? I heard last summer on the best authority that you would spend the winter in Egypt,"
said her nephew.
"I fully expected to be gone eighteen months when I left, but the death of the mother of my friend, Mrs. Roberts, changed our plans. I did not wish to go alone."
Frances was listening intently. "Father! you don"t mean Aunt Frances is a Certain Person?" she cried. "I thought it was a man."
"It is a character we are going to forget. I am your father"s aunt and yours, dear, and I am not Mrs. Marvin, but Mrs. Richards. Mrs. Marvin is my cousin. You understand it all now, don"t you?"
Frances was not quite certain of this, but there was no doubt about her pleasure in her new relative; and when her father went home with his aunt she was rather impatient at not being allowed to go too.