Carrots and Floss used to have about
their cousin Sybil, and how they wished for her to come to see them?
Well, about a fortnight after the affair of the lost half-sovereign,
Sybil actually _did_ come to see them! She and her mamma. But it all
happened quite differently from the way the children had planned it, so
that just at first they could hardly believe it _was_ "a wish come
true," though afterwards, when it was over, and they began to look back
to it as a real thing instead of forwards to it as a fancy, they grew to
think it had really turned out nicer than any of their fancies.

You would like to hear all about it, I dare say.

It took them all by surprise--this sudden visit of Sybil and her mother,
I mean. There was no time for planning or arranging anything. There just
came a telegram one afternoon, to say that Mrs. ----, no, I don't think
I will tell you the name of Sybil's mother, I want you just to think of
her as "auntie"--and her little girl would arrive at Sandyshore, late
that same evening, "to stay one day," said the telegram, on their way to
some other place, it does not matter where.

It was several years since Captain Desart had seen his sister--that is,
"auntie." He had been abroad at the time of her marriage, for she was a
good many years younger than he, and since then, _she_ and her husband
had been a great deal out of England. But now at last they were going to
have a settled home, and though it was a good way from Sandyshore, still
it was not like being in another country.

"I am sorry Florence can only stay one day," said Mrs. Desart to her
husband; "it seems hardly worth while for her to come so far out of her
way for so short a time."

"I am sorry too," said Captain Desart; "but a day's better than
nothing."

Floss and Carrots were sorry _too_--but what they were _most_ sorry for
was not that Sybil and her mamma were only going to stay there one day,
it was that they would not arrive till after the children's bedtime! So
much after, that there could not even be a question of their "sitting up
till they come." There was even a doubt of Cecil and Louise doing so,
and Floss could not help feeling rather pleased at Mott's getting a
decided snub from his father when he broached the subject on his own
account.

"Sit up till after ten o'clock--nonsense. Nobody wants you. Go to bed as
usual, of course," said Captain Desart.

"How tired that poor little girl will be!" said Mrs. Desart pityi