"Oh, the bestest, grandest surprise you ever, ever knew!" And Pat danced up and down and giggled deep in her throat to make them know that grandmothers and lost babies were as nothing compared to the surprise she had for them within the house!
"Pat Everett, are you crazy?" whispered Aunt Pen back. "Aren't you going to let us in?"
"Of course!" answered Pat with importance. "You may walk in and go at once into the library! But you must shut your eyes tight and promise not to peek until I count----"
"It's your mother!" declared Penelope, eagerly.
"Nopey--it's a bigger surprise than that! No fair guessing, only you couldn't anyway! Now come in and shut your eyes!"
So they had to do just what Pat told them to do! And Pat, happier than she had ever been in her life, dancing rather than stepping, led them into the library. She had no chance to count--a sudden, quick exclamation made them both open their eyes!
For some one had said: "Pen--Everett!" But Renée's sharp cry drowned out the sound. She saw, standing a little behind Capt. Allan, thin in his shabby French uniform, the empty sleeve pinned to his tunic, Emile--her beloved Emile!
In an instant she was in the tight clasp of his arm--they were both crying--poor little Renée's heart could stand no more! And as she clung to him her fingers were feeling across his face and through his hair and over the cloth of his uniform as though to tell her it was not a dream but true!
Pat was so happy for Renée that she found her own eyes wet and turned away to keep back the tears. And there was Aunt Pen, the color of a red poppy, slipping out of Capt. Allan's arm!
"I might have known, Miss Pat, that you and I were old friends--because I used to think I had a sort of solid claim on this aunt of yours--only I didn't know she was your aunt!"