"No, not another one, just now," she answered, laughing softly. "Too many might turn your head, and mine, too. But it is so good to have you home once more. You don't know how lonely I've been without you, daddy. There wasn't anyone in the world who cared two straws for me till you came back and I came here. But I've got you now, and I'm not going to let you go very soon again, I can tell you. You are too precious, and we are going to have lovely times together by-and-by when I grow up, aren't we?"

"We are not going to wait till then, sweetheart; we are going to begin right off, this very minute. I can't afford to waste any more precious time; too much has been wasted already," he said, as he raised the pretty face and kissed it, and then, drawing her arm through his, added: "Now let me do the honors. Introduce me to your friends, and let me see if seven years' knocking about this old world has made me forget the 'Quips, and Cranks, and Wanton Wiles, Nods, and Becks, and Wreathed Smiles' I used to know."

They left the snuggery, and, blissfully conscious of her honors, Toinette presented her father to the girls. Just how proud they were of the marked attention he showed to each I'll leave it to some other girls to guess. He danced with them, took them to supper, sought out the greatest delicacies for them, and played the gallant as though he were but twenty instead of forty-two. "He treated us just as though we were the big girls," they said, when holding forth upon the subject the next day.

Twelve o'clock came all too soon.

Mr. Reeve remained over night, and the following day found an opportunity to have a long talk with Miss Preston--a talk which afforded him great satisfaction for many reasons.

Toinette, with several of the other girls, escorted him to the train, and gave him a most enthusiastic "send-off."

In the course of a few days a package was delivered at the school. Had bomb-sh.e.l.ls been dropped there they could hardly have created more excitement. Jean's house was only a few blocks from the school, and one Sat.u.r.day morning--for the cameras were obliging enough to choose that day to appear--Mrs. Rockwood's sitting-room was the scene of the wildest excitement.

CHAPTER XXII

"WE'VE GOT 'EM! WE'VE GOT 'EM!"

Mrs. Rockwood was in her sitting-room one morning. It was Sat.u.r.day, and a day of liberty for Jean. She had gone over to the school to spend a few hours with Helen, and Mrs. Lockwood did not expect her home until lunch-time, but, happening to glance from her window about ten o'clock, what was her surprise to see two figures approaching, one with a series of bounds, prances and jumps, which indicated a wildly hilarious and satisfied frame of mind in Jean, and the other with a subdued hop and skip, and then a sedate walk, which, although less demonstrative, was quite as indicative of a very deep and serene happiness to any one familiar with Helen.

A moment later the front door slammed, and two pairs of feet came tearing up the stairs as though pursued by Boer cavalry, and two eager voices cried:

"We've got 'em! We've got 'em! We've got 'em!" and both girls came tearing into the room to cast themselves and two very suggestive looking parcels upon Mrs. Rockwood.

"What in this world has happened?" she asked, in amazement, for both girls were breathless, and could only point at the parcels in her lap and say: "Open them! Open them, quick!"

Mrs. Rockwood was a woman who entered heart and soul into her daughter's pleasures, and nothing was ever quite right in Jean's eyes unless her mother shared it. Every little plan must be talked over with her, and it was pretty sure not to suffer any from one of her suggestions. Helen spent a great deal of time with Jean and was devoted to Mrs. Rockwood.

Consequently, when the cameras arrived at the school that morning, and they found out that there was really no mistake, but that they were certainly intended for the persons whose names were so plainly written upon the boxes, and sent in Miss Preston's care, they could hardly wait to get over to Jean's house to show their treasures to her mother. Many had been the surmises as to whom had sent such beauties, but Toinette kept a perfectly sober face, and no one suspected the secret.

Carefully removing the wrappings, Mrs. Rockwood brought the contents of the boxes to view. She was as much surprised as the girls, and exclaimed: "Why, who could have sent them to you, and how did anyone learn that you were so anxious to have them? Such beauties, too!"

"That is the funniest part of it all, for we never told a soul, and didn't mean to till we had them, and now here they are. I believe St. Nick must have heard us wishing for them," said Helen.

"And to _both_ of us, and just _alike_! Think of it! Oh, moddie, isn't it lovely?" and Jean threw her arms about her mother's neck by way of giving vent to her feelings.

"I'm as delighted as you and Helen are, dear, only I wish we might learn who our benefactor is."

"Yes, isn't it too bad. Well, it may crop out later. I thought first it must be Miss Preston, but she said that she did not know any more about it than we did," said Helen.

"Now, when may we take our pictures, and what shall we take?" cried Jean.

"You suggest something, Mrs. Rockwood; it will be nicer if you do it,"

said Helen, dropping down upon her knees beside Mrs. Rockwood, and placing her arm around her friend's waist.

Mrs. Rockwood drew her close to her side as she replied:

"Let me examine these treasures which have arrived so mysteriously, read the directions concerning them, and then we'll see what we'll see," and she began to read: "Take the camera into a perfectly dark closet, where no ray of light can penetrate (even covering the keyhole), and then place within it one of the sensitive plates, being careful not to expose the unused plates. Your camera is now ready to take the picture, etc." "That is all very simple, I'm sure, and if the taking proves as simple as are the directions you need have little apprehension of failure. But your directions add very explicitly that you must _not_ attempt to take a picture unless the day is sunny. So I fear those conditions preclude the possibility of your taking any upon this cloudy day, and you will have to possess your souls in peace till 'Old Sol' favors you."

"Oh, dear, isn't that too bad! I thought we could take some right off.

Don't you think we might at least try, mamma?"

"I fear they would prove failures; better wait a more favorable light."

As though to tantalize frail humanity, "Old Sol" remained very exclusive all day, and, even though Helen remained till evening in the hope that he would overcome his fit of sulks, nothing of the kind happened, and she was forced to go back to the school without one.

"Just wait till Monday, and we'll do wonders; see if we don't," said Jean, as she bade her farewell, little dreaming what wonders she was destined to do with her magical box ere the sun set Monday night.

"I'll ask Miss Preston to let me come over at four o'clock on Monday, and then we'll go out in the little dell and get a lovely picture. You know the place I mean: where that old clump of fir-trees stands by the ruined wall," said artistic Helen.

But when Monday arrived unforeseen difficulties arose for Jean. The day was the sunniest ever known, and, while waiting for Helen to come, she got out the precious camera to set the plates.

"Why, mamma, there isn't a dark closet in the whole house; not a single one," cried Jean, coming into her mother's room as she was dressing to go out on Monday afternoon. "Now, where in this world am I to open my plate-box, I'd like to know?"

Mrs. Rockwood laughed as she turned toward Jean, whose face was the picture of dismay. "True enough, there isn't. Now, who would have supposed that the architect who designed this house, and put a window in every closet, could have been so short-sighted as not to antic.i.p.ate such a need as the present one?"

"But what am I to do?" desperately.

"Try putting a dark covering over the windows."

"I have, but it's just no use, for I can't get it pitch dark to save me."

"And to think that barely forty-eight hours ago I was congratulating myself that every closet in the house could be properly aired. Alas! how do our recent acquisitions alter our views?"

"Now, moddie, don't laugh, but stop teasing me, and just think as hard as ever you can _how_ I am to find a dark place."

Mrs. Rockwood thought for a few moments, and then said:

"I have it! Mary's pot-closet, under the back stairs; that is as dark as a pocket, I'm sure."

"There! I knew you'd find a way; you always do. Just the very place, and now I'm going straight down to fix it. Good-bye," and, kissing her mother, away she flew.

CHAPTER XXIII

A CAMERA'S CAPERS.

"Mary!" cried Jean, as she bounced into the kitchen, where the maid, a typical "child of Erin," who worshipped the very ground Jean trod upon, stood at the sink paring her "taties" for the evening meal, "see my new camera; I'm going to take a picture with it, and I've got to go into your pot-closet to fix the plates."

"A picter, is it? And will ye be afther takin' a picter wid that schmall bit av a black box? How do ye do it at all, I do' know."

"Oh, I go into a dark closet and put a gelatine plate in the box, and then I go outdoors and take my picture."