Three Margarets

Three Margarets, by Laura E.
Richards

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Title: Three Margarets
Author: Laura E. Richards
Illustrator: Ethelred B. Barry
Release Date: August 10, 2007 [EBook #22293]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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MARGARETS ***

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[Illustration: UNCLE JOHN AND THE YOUNG CUBANS.]
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BOOKS FOR GIRLS By Laura E. Richards
The MARGARET SERIES
Three Margarets Margaret Montfort Peggy Rita Fernley House
The HILDEGARDE SERIES
Queen Hildegarde Hildegarde's Holiday Hildegarde's Home
Hildegarde's Neighbors Hildegarde's Harvest
DANA ESTES & COMPANY Publishers Estes Press, Summer St.,
Boston
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THREE MARGARETS
By LAURA E. RICHARDS
Author Of "Captain January," "Melody," "Queen Hildegarde," Etc.
Illustrated by ETHELRED B. BARRY
Boston Dana Estes & Company Publishers
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Copyright, 1897 By Estes and Lauriat
Colonial Press: Electrotyped and Printed by C. H. Simonds & Co.
Boston, Mass., U. S. A.
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CONTENTS.
CHAPTER PAGE
I. The Arrival 9 II. First Thoughts 21 III. The White Lady of Fernley 36
IV. Confidence 51 V. The Peat-bog 65 VI. The Family Chest 81 VII.
The Garret 98 VIII. Cuba Libre 115 IX. Day by Day 131 X. Looking
Backward 147 XI. Heroes and Heroines 163 XII. In the Saddle 187
XIII. In the Night 208 XIV. Explanations 220 XV. Farewell 237
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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE
Uncle John and the Young Cubans Frontispiece Aunt Faith's Room 43
Peggy at the Bog 73 In the Garret 105 "Cuba Libre" 125 Peggy Writes
Home 143 Horseback 201 Rita's Apology 227
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THREE MARGARETS.
CHAPTER I.
THE ARRIVAL.
Long ago and long ago, And long ago still, There dwelt three merry
maidens Upon a distant hill.
Christina G. Rossetti.
The rain was falling fast. It was a pleasant summer rain that plashed
gently on the leaves of the great elms and locusts, and tinkled musically
in the roadside puddles. Less musical was its sound as it drummed on
the top of the great landau which was rolling along the avenue leading
to Fernley House; but the occupants of the carriage paid little attention
to it, each being buried in her own thoughts. The night was dark, and

the carriage-lamps threw an uncertain gleam on the three figures
leaning back in their corners, muffled and silent. The avenue was
long,--interminably long, it seemed to one of the three travellers; and
finally the silence so oppressed her that she determined to conquer her
shyness and break it.
"What a very long avenue!" she said, speaking in a low, sweet voice.
There was no reply. She hesitated a moment, and then added timidly,
"Don't you think that, as we are cousins, we might introduce ourselves
and make acquaintance? My name is Margaret Montfort."
"Why, so is mine!" exclaimed the traveller opposite her. "And mine!"
added the third, from the further corner.
The voice of the second speaker sounded as if it might be hearty, and as
if only awkwardness gave it a sullen tone. The third spoke with a soft,
languid utterance and the faintest shade of a foreign accent.
"How strange!" exclaimed the first Margaret Montfort. "Of course I
knew that we had the same surname, as our fathers were brothers; but
that we should all three be named--and yet it is not strange, after all!"
she added. "Our grandmother was Margaret, and it was natural that we
should be given her name. But how shall we manage? We cannot say
First, Second, and Third Margaret, as they do on the stage."
"I am never called anything but Peggy," said the second girl, still in a
half-sullen, half-timid tone.
And "My home name is Rita," murmured the third reluctantly; and she
added something in an undertone about "short acquaintance," which the
first Margaret did not choose to hear.
"Oh, how pretty!" she said cordially. "Then I may call you Peggy and
Rita? About myself"--she stopped and laughed--"I hardly know what to
say, for I have always been called Margaret, since I was a baby."
"But one of us might as well be Margaret," answered Peggy. "And

somehow, your voice sounds as if you looked like it. If this road were
ever coming to an end, we might see."
"Oh, I do see!" cried Margaret, leaning forward to look out of the
window. "I see the lights! I see the house! We are really here at last!"
As she spoke, the carriage drove up before a long building twinkling
with lights, and