tment! The house itself looked dark and gloomy, but there were
a great many windows, and looking upwards Pixie espied a glimpse of a
graceful head inside the line of one of the curtains. The travellers
had indeed arrived, and in another moment the three sisters would be
reunited, after four months' separation.

"Ring again, darling! I can't. This basket weighs me down!" said
Bridgie, straining at the heavy handle, and then came surprise number
one, for even as she spoke the door was flung back, and there appeared
on the threshold one immaculate-looking man-servant, while farther down
the hall stood two more in attitudes of attention. Three whole men to
open one door! This was indeed a height of luxury to which the simple
Irish mind had never soared; and where was the upset and confusion which
had been expected, where the signs of recent arrival, where the
smallest, most trifling evidence of confusion? The stately hall looked
as if it had been undisturbed from immemorial ages, and the butler
stared at the two girls and their basket with lofty disdain.

"Not at home, madam!"

Bridgie gasped, and looked blank dismay, but Pixie's shrill protest
could not be restrained.

"Not at home, when I saw her meself not a second ago looking out of the
window?"

What would have happened it is difficult to say, but at that moment a
voice sounded from afar, an eager voice repeating two names over and
over again in tones of rapturous welcome. The man stepped aside, and
Bridgie pressed the basket into his hands and raced along the hall, past
the staring footmen to the bend of the stairs, where Esmeralda stood
with arms stretched wide. Pixie was only a step aside, and Esmeralda
escorted the two girls upstairs to her own room, talking breathlessly
the while.

"Of course he said I was not at home! We arrived only an hour ago, so I
can hardly be ready for visitors yet, but I saw the top of your hats
from the nursery windows. You must come this very minute and see the
boy. He is sweeter than ever. Everyone says he is a perfect beauty.
Oh, me dears, how glad I am to see you! How sweet of you to come!"

"Of course we came; we thought perhaps we might be able to--help!"
Bridgie said, looking around the gorgeous staircase with pensive regret.
"We imagined you in such an upset, dear, with the carpets up, and the
furniture covered with dust-sheets, and we thought we could dust, and
put things straight as we used to do at Knock.