et it is not strange, after all!" she
added. "Our grandmother was Margaret, and it was natural that we should
be given her name. But how shall we manage? We cannot say First, Second,
and Third Margaret, as they do on the stage."

"I am never called anything but Peggy," said the second girl, still in a
half-sullen, half-timid tone.

And "My home name is Rita," murmured the third reluctantly; and she
added something in an undertone about "short acquaintance," which the
first Margaret did not choose to hear.

"Oh, how pretty!" she said cordially. "Then I may call you Peggy and
Rita? About myself"--she stopped and laughed--"I hardly know what to
say, for I have always been called Margaret, since I was a baby."

"But one of us might as well _be_ Margaret," answered Peggy. "And
somehow, your voice sounds as if you looked like it. If this road were
ever coming to an end, we might see."

"Oh, I do see!" cried Margaret, leaning forward to look out of the
window. "I see the lights! I see the house! We are really here at last!"

As she spoke, the carriage drove up before a long building twinkling
with lights, and stopped at a broad flight of steps, leading to a
stone-paved veranda. As the coachman opened the carriage-door, the door
of the house opened too, and a cheerful light streamed out upon the
three weary travellers. Two staid waiting-women, in spotless caps and
aprons, were waiting to receive them as they came up the steps.

"This way, young ladies, if you please!" said the elder of the two. "You
must be tired with your long drive. This is the library; and will you
rest here a while, or will you be shown your rooms at once?"

"Oh, thank you!" said Margaret, "let us stay here a little while! What
do you say, cousins?"

"All right!" said Peggy. The girl whose home name was Rita had already
thrown herself down in an armchair, and seemed to think no reply
necessary.

"Very well, miss," said the dignified waiting-woman, addressing herself
markedly to Margaret. "Susan will come in ten minutes to show you the
rooms, miss, and supper will be ready in half an hour. I am Elizabeth,
miss, if you should want me. The bell is here in the corner."

Margaret thanked her with a cordial smile, the other two never glancing
in her direction, and the woman withdrew.

"Just ten minutes," said Margaret, turning to her cousins, "to make
acquaintance in, and find out what we all look like! Suppose we begin by
taking off our wraps. How