Aunt Patty's Paying Guests by Eglanton Thorne

"THE Dickses will be here to-morrow, Nan," Aunt Patty said to me one morning more than a week later.

"Oh, I am glad! " I said involuntarily.

"So you have found our diminished household dull," said Aunt Patty, smiling.

"Oh, no, auntie, it is not that," I said quickly; "but I have grown very tired of hearing Miss Cottrell talk about Mr. Dicks and dilate upon the glories and delights that await her in the future."

Aunt Patty laughed.

"Poor Miss Cottrell! " she said. "It is rather absurd the way she plumes herself on the prize she has won, yet I am glad she is so happy. I fancy she led a lonely life before she came here."

"After 'dear Lady Mowbray' died," I said. "Well, I am sure I do not grudge her her happiness, though I should like to be sure that it will not lessen Paulina's."

"I think you will find that Paulina takes it philosophically," aunt said; "she is never one to fret or worry. I shall be glad to welcome her back. Do you know she has been away from us for more than a month? It hardly seems so long."

"It seems a long time to me," I said, and had hardly uttered the words ere I longed to recall them, for I did not want aunt to discover why it was that the time had seemed so long to me. It was more than a fortnight since I had seen Alan Faulkner, and our last talk together, when he had tried to warn me of the unworthiness of Ralph Marshman, was a constant burden on my memory. While the hope of arriving at a better understanding with him had to be deferred indefinitely, the days dragged heavily. The entrance of Miss Cottrell, evidently in the best of spirits, prevented Aunt Patty from making any comment on my words.

There was a pleasant bustle in the house that day as we prepared for the return of our Americans. As I helped to set Paulina's room in order, I thought of the miserable night when I had watched beside her and she had suffered so much and shrunk in such dread from the prospect of illness. How dark had seemed the cloud of trouble that loomed ahead of her then! But it had passed and the blessing of health was Paulina's once more. What had the experience meant for Paulina? Would she be just the same as she had been before it befell?

I could hardly keep from laughing when Miss Cottrell brought some of her choicest carnations to adorn Mr. Dicks's room. It seemed so impossible that any woman could cherish a romantic attachment to Josiah Dicks, and he was so prosaic a being that I feared the flowers would be lost on him. I am afraid middle-aged courtship will always appear ridiculous in the eyes of a girl of nineteen.

I was putting the finishing touches to Paulina's room when I became aware of a shrill whistle from the garden. I looked out of the window. Jack stood on the gravel below.

"Come down, Nan, please," he shouted. "I have news-such news for you!"

He was looking so elate that I had no fear of the news being other than good. Full of wonder, I ran downstairs.

"No, I am not coming in," he said as we shook hands; "I am going to tell you all by yourself. You know I went up to London this morning?"

"I know nothing about it," was my reply. "You generally tell me when you are going to town, but you did not on this occasion."

"Oh, well," he said smiling, "there was a reason for that."

"You have not been to my home? " I asked eagerly. "The news has nothing to do with my people, has it?"

"I cannot say that it has," he answered rather blankly. "Is there no one else in whom you can take a little interest?"

"Why, of course! Now I know, Jack! " I cried, enlightened by his manner. "You have passed for Woolwich! That is your news."