Glenloch Girls | Page 8

upon, the girls said they must go, and Mrs. Hamilton
settled down to her letter once more.
"MY DEAR RUTH" (she wrote):
"I can't wait any longer to tell you how delighted I am to know that you
are coming to us for a whole year. I have always wanted a daughter of
my own, and the next best thing to that will be to have a borrowed one.
I am afraid you are not so full of delight at the prospect as Mr.
Hamilton and I are, but we hope to be able to drive away at least a part
of the homesickness, and we already feel an affection for the little girl
who is coming to us.
"I am going to send you a photograph of some girls who have just been
in to see me and who have heard the news of your coming. I am very

fond of them, and they call themselves my 'visiting daughters,' and run
in to see me at all hours and on all sorts of errands. They are very glad
to know you are coming and are already wondering how you look and
whether you will like them. The one in the middle of the picture is
Charlotte Eastman, and the plump little girl on her right is Betty
Ellsworth. The other is Dorothy Marshall. I shall not tell you anything
more about them, because you will soon see them and learn to know
them for yourself."
Just here Mrs. Hamilton paused in her letter. "She must know that I
have a son, and I'm afraid she'll think it strange if I don't mention him,"
she said to herself. "I can't tell her that he is dreading her coming, and I
certainly can't say with truth that he is expecting her with pleasure.
Well, a very little will do and I can explain later."
"My son, Arthur," the letter went on, "is slowly recovering from the
effects of a severe accident. He has not yet left his room, but I hope by
the time you arrive he will have greatly improved.
"And now, my dear, I'll close my note and hurry it off so that it may
soon assure you of our hearty welcome. With kindest regards to your
father, and love to yourself, I am,
"Yours very sincerely,
"MARY A. HAMILTON."
Mrs. Hamilton's eyes were very tender as she folded and sealed her
letter. "Poor little girl," she said half aloud, "I suspect she thinks her
heart is broken, but we must try to mend it for her."

CHAPTER III
THE NEWCOMER
At three o'clock on the afternoon of the twelfth of October the
Hamilton house was very still. Mrs. Hamilton had gone into town, the

housemaid was taking her "afternoon out," and the cook, who had been
kept awake by toothache the night before, was enjoying a nap.
Just about this time Arthur peered cautiously from his room. No one
being in sight he came out slowly and carefully on his crutches. "I can
do miles of exercise in this hall," he said to himself with grim
satisfaction, "as long as there is no one to watch me."
He went up and down once, and then with great effort for a second time.
Just as he was about ready to start again, the door-bell rang. He went
carefully toward the door of his own room, always afraid of toppling
over, and paused when he got there to listen. The bell rang again, this
time more insistently, and he wondered impatiently where Katie and
Ellen were, and why some one didn't go to the door. A third peal of the
bell sent him back to the hall window. From there he could see the
depot carriage with a trunk on the back, and the driver looking
expectantly at the house. He could hear voices on the steps below, but
could see no one until, after a fourth ring, a gentleman and a young girl
went slowly down the steps and stood looking back at the house.
"It's that girl, and she's come a day too soon," gasped Arthur. He threw
up the hall window and spoke to them.
"If you will wait a moment longer," he said, "I will try to find some one
to open the door for you."
The gentleman bowed and thanked him, the girl smiled, and Arthur left
the window, inwardly vowing vengeance on faithless maids who didn't
attend to their duties. He groaned as he suddenly remembered that it
was Katie's afternoon out. He might as well go downstairs himself as
take the long journey through the house to find Ellen.
"If I try to go down on these old sticks, they'll have to break open the
door and pick me up," he said to himself