"It's much more likely to be one of the boys playing a joke on us," said Dolly who hadn't had a chance to see the exceedingly correct-looking card which Ruth was crushing in her agitation. "I don't believe there has been time yet for Elsa's relatives to get here."

"Pretty nearly four weeks ago that Uncle Henry sent the letters,"

replied Ruth. "You can't make me believe the boys could get up anything like this," she added, displaying the card.

"You'll have to go down right off," said Dorothy, quite convinced.

"You mustn't keep him waiting."

"Oh, why not one of you?" groaned Ruth. "He won't know the difference, and you've lived in Glenloch longer."

"Goosey. As if that made any difference," laughed Charlotte.

"You know more German than any one of us," said Katharine comfortingly.

"Horrors! Shall I have to talk to him in German?" asked poor Ruth in despair.

"Of course," said Betty. "Didn't Katie say that she couldn't make him understand?"

Ruth would have liked to run and hide, but instead she went slowly down-stairs and walked straight into the parlor without giving herself time to think.

The tall, gray-haired man who rose to meet her was so like the picture in the box that Ruth felt almost as if she knew him, and she would have known just what to say if the dreaded German hadn't embarra.s.sed her. She shook hands with him in silence, and then for a moment struggled to find a conversational opening which shouldn't plunge her into deeper distress.

The kind old man evidently understood her difficulty, for his sad face grew gentle as he said with slow distinctness:

"I can understand English, Fraulein."

He smiled at the extreme relief expressed in Ruth's face and went on speaking.

"I have come so quick as I can from Germany, Fraulein, my little grandchild to see, and I find that I am arrived before my letter gets here. I have seen in Boston Mr. Hamilton, and he has told me how to find his home and that he will come also so soon as he can."

Ruth drew a breath of relief. "If you will excuse me I will send for the baby this very minute," she said, and went quickly from the room.

"Girls, go get Elsa and bring her here as fast as you can," she exclaimed, popping her head into her own room. "He's perfectly elegant," and then she was gone again.

Betty and Dorothy running down the stairs soon after heard the steady hum of conversation in the parlor, and smiled to think how soon Ruth's terror had vanished. For Ruth the next twenty minutes seemed very long, and she spent it trying to make the Herr Baron feel at home, and hoping against hope that Mrs. Hamilton would arrive by the next train.

To her joy it happened as she had wished, for Mrs. Hamilton and the baby arrived at the house almost in the same moment. Little Elsa had grown so used to petting and attention that she was friendliness itself and went to her grandfather with a gurgle of delight. He, poor man, almost lost his self-control at sight of her, for she was wonderfully like his own lost daughter. Ruth slipped out of the room, because she couldn't bear to see his grief, and went back to the girls, who were waiting for her with eager curiosity.

A little later Mrs. Hamilton came to them.

"Uncle Henry has come and has taken the Baron off to talk with Mrs. Schmidt and Mrs. Hall," she said in answer to their questions.

"The poor man says his only daughter married against his wishes, but that he should have willingly forgiven her and her husband if they had only given him the chance. He is delighted with little Elsa, and so grateful to you girls for befriending her. He hopes to get Mrs. Hall to go with him and the baby to Dresden, and then he will send her back here. He is very anxious to meet the club girls and thank them for what they have done, and he's invited us all to visit him if we go to Germany."

"When will he start for home?" asked Ruth.

"As soon as he can get away," answered Mrs. Hamilton. "And that reminds me that I must see if I can do anything for Mrs. Hall to help matters along. I can sympathize with the poor grandfather's desire to get the baby to her grandmother as soon as possible."

Left to themselves the girls looked at each other blankly.

"So that's the end of the club baby," sighed Betty.

"Why, no, she can be our German member," said Ruth decidedly.

CHAPTER XV

PETER PAN

It was Sat.u.r.day morning, and Ruth sat down at her desk to write her regular letter to her father. She laid out her paper, fitted a fresh pen into the silver holder, and then looked at the calendar.

As she found the date her eyes grew very thoughtful.

"Six months to a day," she murmured. "How fast the time has gone."

Then she began her letter.

"Glenloch, March 17th.

"Darling father:

"I wonder if you remember that just six months ago to-day you and I were celebrating your birthday together, and that I was heartbroken when you told me what was going to happen to us. Nothing could have made me believe then that I could be so happy now, or that the time could possibly seem so short. I wonder if you would think I've changed any. I'm an inch taller than I was when you saw me last, and I weigh ten pounds more, so I've accomplished something in six months. I don't believe you've grown an inch; at least not an up and down inch.

"I just wish you could taste some of my cooking. If I went out as cook now, I shouldn't have to feed the family on birthday cake, for I can make perfectly scrumptious little baking-powder biscuit, and my salad dressing is a joy forever. I can do other things, of course, but these are my specialties. Oh, and I can make a maple fudge that just melts in your mouth. I sent a box of it to Uncle Jerry, and he wrote back right off that I could consider myself engaged as cook whenever he set up housekeeping.

"I read almost every bit of your German letter myself, though I had to get Aunt Mary to help me out once or twice. It made me want to study all the harder to see how quickly she read it. It's ten times easier now to work hard on French and German, because I hope that I shall need to use them before very long. Oh, Popsy, won't it be joyful when I can come over to you!!!! It would take more than four hundred exclamation points to express my feelings, so you must please imagine the rest of them.

"I don't want to make you too proud of your daughter, but I must just tell you that I got an A in French history last month. We have a dandy history teacher who makes everything interesting, and then I keep thinking that I must know all about these things before I go abroad, and that helps lots.

"More than anything I love the Gym. I just wish you could see Miss Burton; she's the dearest, sweetest teacher I ever had, and so pretty that I want to look at her all the time. She's a splendid teacher, too, and the girls are all wild over the lessons and over her.

"I take only one violin lesson a week now, because, though you may find it hard to believe, I am really working too hard at school to go into Boston twice a week. I practice every day and Arthur and I play together almost every evening. Arthur is so changed and so jolly now. He uses only one cane and says he means to walk without any soon. He acts as if he couldn't get enough of the boys and girls, and his father and mother look perfectly radiant whenever their eyes light on him. He's gone back to school, and he and Joe are making all sorts of plans about college.

"I suppose you never noticed that I didn't tell you what Uncle Henry gave me for a Christmas present, or perhaps you thought he didn't give me anything. Well, he did give me one of the very nicest presents I ever had, and that was a course of lessons at a riding-school in Boston. I was perfectly delighted, and I knew I shouldn't have to ask you about it because you've always meant to have me learn to ride. I've been going in every Wednesday since Christmas, taking a violin lesson first, and then meeting Uncle Henry to go to the riding-school. He said he was so particular about borrowed articles that he would never let me go alone. My, but it was hard at first, and I thought I never should learn to hold my whip and my reins and myself in the proper way. I had such a darling horse, though, and it was such fun, that I couldn't help sticking to it, and now the riding-master says that I really ride very well.

"A week ago Uncle Henry surprised me by buying the horse I've been riding and he's out in the stable this very minute. He thinks I'm quite ready to ride with him out here, and he's coming home to lunch so that we can start off early this afternoon. That last sentence sounds rather mixed. Of course I mean that it's the horse that's in the stable, and it's Uncle Henry, not the horse, who's coming home to lunch.

"There, that cat is out of the bag and I feel better. I suppose they'll all laugh at me for telling, but I don't care. I thought at first it would be great fun to surprise you after I got over there, but I might have known I couldn't keep such a lovely secret all that time.

"Oh, I almost forgot to tell you that Aunt Mary said her part of the present was to be my riding-habit, and the first time Arthur went into Boston he brought me the prettiest little riding-crop I've ever seen.

"Mercy! My arm's stiff from writing so much, and my little watch tells me that it's almost lunch-time. I never wrote such a long letter before and I do hope you'll be properly grateful for it.

I've known you to complain of the shortness of my letters, but you can't this time.

"With heaps of love to you, I am "Your faithfulest, lovingest chum,

"Ruth."

"There! The dearest of fathers ought to be satisfied with that,"