"Oh, I'll stay--I'd rather!" and Renée was quite startled that she could decide so quickly.
"You mean it? Oh, my baby--my pretty flower!" Then a sudden resolution lighted the old woman's face. "It will be as though that motherhood I sacrificed by my wicked pride was given back to me! Oh, I know how wicked and wrong I was and how I wanted for my precious one only the things that my own pride clamored for! But you shall not stay now--my pretty flower would wither and fade in these ugly walls. I am well, again--and Elsbeth and I will clean out this place! It shall be made bright and pretty for my little one! You must go now, back with your good friends, then after a little----"
Every one thought that was best. Elsbeth came in with a tray of sandwiches and some cocoa. Every one was hungry because the dinner hour was long past and, in the excitement, had been forgotten. And as they ate, Mrs. Forrester, like a new creature, began energetically to give Elsbeth orders as to what she must do on the morrow to begin the work of transforming the ugly old house into a beautiful home for her "pretty flower."
Then, one by one, they said good-night to Mrs. Forrester, and Renée, leaning over, kissed her and whispered shyly:
"Good-night, grandmother! Very soon I will come back--to stay."
CHAPTER XXII
SURPRISES
"Dinner is served, Miss Pat!"
"Why, Aunt Pen and Renée are not here," cried Pat, looking up from a book.
"Miss Everett said that dinner should not wait! It is a quarter past seven."