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I half believe Polly's no better than she should be." The flush on Mrs. Clover's face deepened and she spoke severely. "What do you mean by saying such things?" "I didn't meant to," exclaimed Gammon, with hasty penitence. "Look here, I really didn't; but you put me out. She had some presents given her, that's all." "I know it," said Mrs. Clover. "She's been here to-day called this afternoon."
Clover's thoughts were so occupied with curiosity as to what she would turn out to be, that she scarcely realized that she was crossing the Mississippi for the first time, and she gave scant attention to the low bluffs which bound the river, and on which the Indians used to hold their councils in those dim days when there was still an "undiscovered West" set down in geographies and atlases.
She saw that her father, from very over-anxiety, had made a mistake, and complicated Clover's inevitable cares with a most undesirable companion, who would add to rather than relieve them.
Thurber Wade, whom Phil was pleased to call Clover's young man, the son of a rich New York banker, whose ill-health had brought him to live in St. Helen's, and who had built a handsome house on the principal street. This gilded youth had several times sent roses to Clover, a fact which Phil had noticed, and upon which he was fond of commenting.
That's the story of your Uncle Clover, Polly." The girl was impressed. She could believe anything ill of Mrs. Clover's husband. Her astonishment at learning that he was a lord had never wholly subsided. That he should be a cunning rascal seemed vastly more probable. "But what about that letter you sent eh?" pursued Gammon with an artful look. "Didn't you address it to Lord P. himself?
That Clarence and Elsie should fancy each other had been a secret though unconfessed dream of Clover's ever since her own engagement, when Clarence had endeared himself by his manly behavior and real unselfishness under trying circumstances. But these dreams are rarely gratified, and she was not at all prepared to have hers come true with such unexpected ease and rapidity.
But of all Clover's offerings the one which pleased her most, as showing a close observation of her needs, came from Geoff Templestowe.
"Very well then!" snatching up Clover's slip, and putting her own in its place, "you can just write on it yourself, I shan't! I never heard of such a word in my life! You made it up for the occasion, you know you did!" "I didn't! it's in the Bible," replied Clover, setting to work composedly on the fresh paper. But when Rose opened Clover's slip she groaned again.
"It's so funny that I can't believe it, till I take time to think," said Amy, perching herself on the arm of her mother's seat. "Just think, you'll see Elsie and her baby, and Aunt Clover's baby, and Uncle Geoff and Phil, and all of them. It's the beautifulest place out there that you ever saw.
Then she threw the door open, and led the girls in. "See, Katy," she said, "this is your bureau, and this is Clover's. And look what nice drawers papa has had put in the closet, two for you, and two for her. Aren't they convenient? Don't you like it? And isn't it a great deal pleasanter than the old room?" "Oh, a great deal," cried the girls. "It is delightful, every thing about it."
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