re a most inviting and hospitable air, with doors and
windows wide open, and the soft wind fluttering the vines and the white
curtains. "Ah, there comes Katy now." She ran forward to meet her while
Clover followed with little Rose.

"Let me det down, pease," said that young lady,--the first remark she had
made. "I tan walk all by myself. I am not a baby any more."

"_Will_ you hear her talk?" cried Katy, catching her up. "Isn't it
wonderful? Rosebud, who am I, do you think?"

"My Aunt Taty, I dess, betause you is so big. Is you mawwied yet?"

"No, indeed. Did you think I would get 'mawwied' without you? I have been
waiting for you and mamma to come and help me."

"Well, we is here," in a tone of immense satisfaction. "Now you tan."

The larger Rose meanwhile was making acquaintance with the others. She
needed no introductions, but seemed to know by instinct which was each boy
and each girl, and to fit the right names to them all. In five minutes she
seemed as much at home as though she had spent her life in Burnet. They
bore her into the house in a sort of triumph, and upstairs to the blue
bedroom, which Katy and Clover had vacated for her; and such a hubbub of
talk and laughter presently issued therefrom that Cousin Helen, on the
other side the entry, asked Jane to set her door open that she might enjoy
the sounds,--they were so merry.

Rose's bright, rather high-pitched voice was easily distinguishable above
the rest. She was evidently relating some experience of her journey, with
an occasional splash by way of accompaniment, which suggested that she
might be washing her hands.

"Yes, she really has grown awfully pretty; and she had on the loveliest
dark-brown suit you ever saw, with a fawn-colored hat, and was altogether
dazzling; and, do you know, I was really quite glad to see her. I can't
imagine why, but I was! I didn't stay glad long, however."

"Why not? What did she do?" This in Clover's voice.

"Well, she didn't do anything, but she was distant and disagreeable. I
scarcely observed it at first, I was so pleased to see one of the old
Hillsover girls; and I went on being very cordial. Then Lilly tried to put
me down by running over a list of her fine acquaintances, Lady this, and
the Marquis of that,--people whom she and her mother had known abroad. It
made me think of my old autograph book with Antonio de Vallombrosa, and
the rest. Do you remember?"

"Of course we do. Well, go on."

"At last she s