thought you would never come!” she exclaimed. “Read this letter.” She picked it up from the bench beside her and handed it to Kate. “It’s from your Great Aunt Katherine!” “What! Again?” Why Kate exclaimed “Again” would be hard to say, for within her memory Great Aunt Katherine had only written her mother once before, and that was all of two years ago! That letter had been to tell of the sudden death of a semi-relative, a woman of whom, until that time, Kate had never heard. Would this have news of another death? It must be something of importance that had wrung a second letter from Great Aunt Katherine. Flinging her books on the grass, and following them herself to sit at her mother’s feet, Kate opened the smooth, thick, creamy sheet and read: CONTENTS My dear Katherine: My dear Katherine: I am asking you to send your daughter Katherine to spend the month of July with me here in my Oakdale house. Unexpected business in Boston is keeping me from my usual trip abroad this summer. I do not know whether I told you when acquainting you with Gloria’s tragic death that her daughter was left without home or protection of any sort and that I proposed to take her in. But such was the case. Naturally, ever since, the child has been peculiarly lonely here in Oakdale. And now that she no longer has her day school in Boston to occupy her, the situation is a really trying one. It has occurred to me that Elsie and your Katherine are very nearly of an age, both fifteen, and that they might find themselves companionable. So I am asking you to forget old grievances, as I shall, and send your daughter to me for a month’s visit. I shall plan parties and theatres and good times for them, and promise you that it will be every bit as gay as it was when you were a young girl here, and not too independent then to let your aunt give herself pleasure by planning for yours. I have looked up trains and find that by leaving Middletown at one o’clock, Katherine, with only one change, will arrive in the South Station in Boston at six-fifteen. I shall expect her on that train Saturday of this week, and Bertha, Elsie’s maid, will meet her and bring her out here in time for dinner. If for any
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