“I saw Silvery Mary the other day and told her you were coming. She is the same mouse as ever. I shall ask her and some of the other girls to come out to lunch on one of your days. Good-by, with a hundred and fifty kisses to Clovy and the rest.
“Your loving
“ROSE RED.”
“She never signs herself Browne, I observe,” said Clover, as she finished the letter.
“Oh, Rose Red Browne would sound too funny. Rose Red she must stay till the end of the CHAPTER; no other name could suit her half so well, and I can’t imagine her being called anything else. What fun it will be to see her and little Rose!”
“And Deniston Browne,” put in Clover.
“Somehow I find it rather hard to take in the fact that there is a Deniston Browne,” observed Katy.
“It will be easier after you have seen him, perhaps.”
The last day came, as last days will. Katy’s trunk, most carefully and exactly packed by the united efforts of the family, stood in the hall, locked and strapped, not to be opened again till the party reached London. This fact gave it a certain awful interest in the eyes of Phil and Johnnie, and even Elsie gazed upon it with respect. The little valise was also ready; and Dorry, the neat-handed, had painted a red star on both ends of both it and the trunk, that they might be easily picked from among a heap of luggage. He now proceeded to prepare and paste on two square cards, labelled respectively, “Hold” and “State-room.” Mrs. Hall had told them that this was the correct thing to do.
Mrs. Ashe had been full of business likewise in putting her house to rights for a family who had rented it for the time of her absence, and Katy and Clover had taken a good many hours from their own preparations to help her. All was done at last; and one bright morning in October, Katy stood on the wharf with her family about her, and a lump in her throat which made it difficult to speak to any of them. She stood so very still and said so very little, that a bystander not acquainted with the circumstances might have dubbed her “unfeeling;” while the fact was that she was feeling too much!
The first bell rang. Katy kissed everybody quietly and went on board with her father. Her parting from him, hardest of all, took place in the midst of a crowd of people; then he had to leave her, and as the wheels began to revolve she went out on the side deck to have a last glimpse of the home faces. There they were: Elsie crying tumultuously, with her head on papa’s coat-sleeve; John laughing, or trying to laugh, with big tears running down her cheeks the while; and brave little Clover waving her handkerchief encouragingly, but with a very sober look on her face. Katy’s heart went out to the little group with a sudden passion of regret and yearning. Why had she said she would go? What was all Europe in comparison with what she was leaving? Life was so short, how could she take a whole year out of it to spend away from the people she loved best? If it had been left to her to choose, I think she would have flown back to the shore then and there, and given up the journey, I also think she would have been heartily sorry a little later, had she done so.
But it was not left for her to choose. Already the throb of the engines was growing more regular and the distance widening between the great boat and the wharf. Gradually the dear faces faded into distance; and after watching till the flutter of Clover’s handkerchief became an undistinguishable speck, Katy went to the cabin with a heavy heart. But there were Mrs. Ashe and Amy, inclined to be homesick also, and in need of cheering; and Katy, as she tried to brighten them, gradually grew bright herself, and recovered her hopeful spirits. Burnet pulled less strongly as it got farther away, and Europe beckoned more brilliantly now that they were fairly embarked on their journey. The sun shone, the lake was a beautiful, dazzling blue, and Katy said to herself, “After all, a year is not very long, and how happy I am going to be!”
Chapter III.
Rose and Rosebud
Thirty-six hours later the Albany train, running smoothly across the green levels beyond the Mill Dam, brought the travellers to Boston.
Katy looked eagerly from the window for her first glimpse of the city of which she had heard so much. “Dear little Boston! How nice it is to see it again!” she heard a lady behind her say; but why it should be called “little Boston” she could not imagine. Seen from the train, it looked large, imposing, and very picturesque, after flat Burnet with its one bank down to the edge of the lake. She studied the towers, steeples, and red roofs crowding each other up the slopes of the Tri-Mountain, and the big State House dome crowning all, and made up her mind that she liked the looks of it better than any other city she had ever seen.
The train slackened its speed, ran for a few moments between rows of tall, shabby brick walls, and with a long, final screech of its whistle came to halt in the station-house. Every one made a simultaneous rush for the door; and Katy and Mrs. Ashe, waiting to collect their books and bags, found themselves wedged into their seats and unable to get out. It was a confusing moment, and not comfortable; such moments never are.
But the discomfort brightened into a sense of relief as, looking out of the window, Katy caught sight of a face exactly opposite, which had evidently caught sight of her,—a fresh, pretty face, with light, waving hair, pink cheeks all a-dimple, and eyes which shone with laughter and welcome. It was Rose herself, not a bit changed during the years since they parted. A tall young man stood beside her, who must, of course, be her husband, Deniston Browne.
“There is Rose Red,” cried Katy to Mrs. Ashe. “Oh, doesn’t she look dear and natural? Do wait and let me introduce you. I want you to know her.”
But the train had come in a little behind time, and Mrs. Ashe was afraid of missing the Hingham boat; so she only took a hasty peep from the window at Rose, pronounced her to be charming-looking, kissed Katy hurriedly, reminded her that they must be on the steamer punctually at twelve o’clock the following Saturday, and was gone, with Amy beside her; so that Katy, following last of all the slow-moving line of passengers, stepped all alone down from the platform into the arms of Rose Red.
“You darling!” was Rose’s first greeting. “I began to think you meant to spend the night in the car, you were so long in getting out. Well, how perfectly lovely this is! Deniston, here is Katy; Katy, this is my husband.”
Rose looked about fifteen as she spoke, and so absurdly young to have a “husband,” that Katy could not help laughing as she shook hands with “Deniston;” and his own eyes twinkled with fun and evident recognition of the same joke. He was a tall young man, with a pleasant, “steady” face, and seemed to be infinitely amused, in a quiet way, with everything which his wife said and did.
“Let us make haste and get out of this hole,” went on Rose. “I can scarcely see for the smoke. Deniston, dear, please find the cab, and have Katy’s luggage put on it. I am wild to get her home, and exhibit baby before she chews up her new sash or does something else that is dreadful, to spoil her looks. I left her sitting in state, Katy, with all her best clothes on, waiting to be made known to you.”
“My large trunk is to go straight to the steamer,” explained Katy, as she gave her checks to Mr. Browne. “I only want the little one taken out to Longwood, please.”
“Now, this is cosey,” remarked Rose, when they were seated in the cab with Katy’s bag at their feet. “Deniston, my love, I wish you were going out with us. There’s a nice little bench here all ready and vacant, which is just suited to a man of your inches. You won’t? Well,