CHAPTER XX.

The uncles, themselves grieving over the departure of their dear young niece, were most kind to the bereaved brother and sisters; doing all they could to comfort them, attending to the arrangements and expenses connected with the funeral and the putting on of mourning by Ethel and Blanche.

Nor did they stop at that, but perceiving that the sisters were worn out with the long nursing, and needed rest and change of scene, counselled them to go away for a time, offering to bear for them all the expense involved in so doing.

A very kind and sympathetic letter had been received from Mrs. Keith only the day before, urging them to come to her for a few weeks, and now they decided to accept the invitation, closing their store and letting their maid-of-all-work take a holiday also.

Harry went with them for a few hours' stay, then returned to his business, taking up his abode, for the time of their absence, in his old home at the house of their Uncle George.

It was at first something of a disappointment to Ethel and Blanche to find that Mrs. Keith had other guests than themselves--her husband's sister Mildred and her two daughters Marcia and f.a.n.n.y--but a few hours in their pleasant society more than reconciled them to this unexpected addition to the little party; both mother and daughters proving very kind, congenial, and sympathetic; listening with evident interest to the loving remembrances of Nannette indulged in by the sisters and Mrs.

Keith and her Mary.

The girls grew very intimate, and Marcia and Fan talked a great deal about their brothers Percy and Stewart and their cousin Stuart Ormsby, sometimes reading aloud portions of letters received from them. They talked of their home too, expressing a hope that some day Ethel and Blanche might visit them there, of their father, grandparents, and other relatives, in a way that showed them to be warm-hearted, affectionate, happy girls.

Industrious ones also they evidently were, very apt to have a bit of work of one kind or another on hand as they talked. Marcia had a decided and well cultivated talent for drawing, and when out driving or walking would often be taking a sketch from nature; at other times drawing designs for engravers or patterns for manufacturers of dress goods, wall papers, or carpets. Fan too employed much of her time in the same way, though her taste and talent seemed hardly so strong in those directions as were her sister's, and she proved a help to her aunt and cousins in remodelling dresses and bonnets and fashioning new ones. Blanche had her sewing also, and Ethel some of the fine needlework taught her years before by Mrs. Coote. They could not forget their recent bereavement, and often when alone together their tears would fall as they thought or talked of Nannette, rejoicing for her that she had safely reached the better land, but mourning for themselves that they would see her dear face no more upon earth.

Thus two weeks had pa.s.sed and they were thinking of going home, when one evening two young men walked in who proved to be Percy Landreth and his cousin Stuart Ormsby. Their coming was a surprise to all, but they received a joyful welcome. "I am very glad to see you, boys," their aunt said when greetings had been exchanged all round; "that is if you haven't come with the intention of taking sister Mildred and her daughters away from us."

"I must confess that that was our design in part, Aunt Flora," returned Percy, "and if you can't do without mother and my sisters we will gladly carry you back with us; indeed be rejoiced to do so whether you feel prepared to spare them or not."

"That is right, Percy," said his mother. "I should like nothing better than to carry the whole family--from your uncle Don down to the baby back with me and keep them there for a long visit. What do you say to it, brother?"

"Thank you kindly, Milly," Mr. Keith returned. "I should like dearly well to accept your invitation, but cannot leave my business just at present, yet am willing to spare wife and children to you for a time, if mother Weston will come and keep house for me while they are gone."

"She is not here now?" Percy said half enquiringly, and glancing about as if in search of her.

"No; she has been with one of her other daughters for some weeks past,"

replied his uncle.

"Well," said Mrs. Keith, "let us just give ourselves up to the enjoyment of each other's society for to-night and settle all these questions to-morrow or later. Now, lads, tell us all about the dear ones left behind you."

"Especially my dear old father and mother," added her husband.

"We left them and all the others quite well," replied Stuart Ormsby, "and were sent off with many injunctions to bring Aunt Mildred and the girls back with us; also as many of you as we could prevail upon to come."

With that the conversation became general, though Ethel and Blanche did little more than listen. Ethel was thinking with some concern that the house would surely be very full now, and wishing she had not delayed her return home. After a little she stole from the room, thinking she would at once make some preparation for departure early the next day; but Mrs.

Keith had divined her thoughts, and followed her to her room.

"Ethel, dear," she said, putting an arm round the young girl's waist, "yours is such a tell-tale face that I know what you have been thinking of since the arrival of our nephews. But you need not be troubled; there is plenty of room for them and you and your sister also. There is a room in the third story, which can be made very comfortable for the lads--especially compared with their quarters when in camp during the late war--and I want you and Blanche to get well acquainted with them and know what bright, good, promising young fellows they are."

"Dear Mrs. Keith, you are and always have been so very kind to us, though we never had the slightest claim upon you," returned Ethel, grateful tears shining in her eyes; "but our visit here has already been longer than we expected to make it when we came. Besides I know so large a family must cost a great deal in both work and money."

"Never you mind about all that," laughed Mrs. Keith; "we don't need to count the pennies, and must always expect to pay in more ways than one for the pleasures we have."

"Oh, please believe that I--I did not mean to be impertinent," stammered Ethel with a blush; "but I've had to count pennies almost ever since I can remember, and it has made me feel very reluctant to use up those of other people."

"My dear girl," said Mrs. Keith with a smile, "I'll forgive the impertinence if you will promise to stay another week or two."

It did not take much persuasion to win Ethel's consent, for she dreaded going back to the home where Nannette was not, and that seemed so desolate without her sunny presence.

The ten days or more that followed seemed to the young people to fly very fast in each other's pleasant society, and by the end of that time their acquaintance had progressed beyond what it might in years of more ordinary intercourse. Percy and Ethel, Stuart and Blanche, felt that they knew each other well, had become mutually attached, and there was a double betrothal and a looking forward to a double wedding when a year or so should establish the young men more fully in business, increasing their means, and bring to the girls a feeling that the mourning garments, now worn in memory of Nannette, might be willingly and with propriety laid aside.

The relatives of the young men, including Percy's mother and sisters, were all pleased, for having for years heard a great deal of these young girls, through their New Jersey relatives, they felt that they already knew them well.

"Dear girl, I want you to feel that you are no longer motherless,"

Mildred said, taking Ethel into a close, loving embrace when Percy had told his story, in the privacy of her own room, "for I shall be glad to claim you as one of my daughters, as I am sure Percy's father will also; so that you must no longer feel yourself an orphan."

"Thank you, dear Mrs. Landreth. It will be, oh, so sweet, to have a mother again," returned Ethel in low, tremulous tones, "though I do not feel worthy of such an one as you."

"Quite as worthy as I am of such a daughter as yourself, dear girl,"

Mildred said with a smile and another caress; "one who has shown herself such a brave, capable, energetic little woman, preferring to earn her own living rather than to live idly dependent upon others."

"It is very, very kind in you to say that, dear Mrs. Landreth," returned Ethel with a blush and a smile. "I know there are many who would despise me for having worked with my own hands for my daily bread, as do even some of my own dear kindred."

"Well, dear girl, I should not let that trouble me, since G.o.d's command is 'Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work,' and Paul bids us 'Work with your own hands,' and again, 'This we command you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.' The Bible--and the Bible only--is our G.o.d-given rule of faith and practice."

"Yes, I have tried to make it mine," Ethel said, "and not to care for the cold and scornful looks of those who despise others who labor with their hands. I must go back to my work to-morrow," she added with a smile, "for I have now been absent longer than was intended when we left home."

"And I am going with her, mother, to ask her uncles' consent. She thinks they will give it without hesitation," he added with an admiring smile into the eyes of his betrothed; "and should they not, I will try argument and persuasion; which should be quite in a lawyer's line."

"Yes; but I hardly fear you will need to use much of either," replied his mother with a look that seemed to say anyone might be proud to claim relationship to her boy.

But a gentle tap on the door of the room interrupted the conversation at that moment, and at a quiet "Come in" from Mrs. Landreth, Stuart Ormsby entered with Blanche upon his arm.

"We have come for your blessing, Aunt Mildred, as the nearest representative of my father and mother," he said, turning a beaming face upon her, "for this dear girl has promised to be mine; if her uncles do not object, which she a.s.sures me they will not. And, perhaps she will give herself to me even if they should prove so unreasonable and unkind."

"Don't be too sure of that, Mr. Ormsby," said Blanche demurely; "one should show great respect for the opinions of one's elders. Do you not think so, Mrs. Landreth?"

"Yes, dear child," returned Mildred, drawing the young girl to her and bestowing upon her a tender caress, "and I think we need scarcely fear to do so in this case; for my sister's son seems to his Aunt Mildred worthy to mate with the best and greatest lady in the land."

Stuart's eyes sparkled as he said heartily, "Many thanks, auntie; I could not ask for a higher recommendation than that."

"Now," said Mildred, leading the way, "suppose we go downstairs and see what your Uncle Don and the other relatives here have to say about it."

Uncle Don had no objection to offer, nor did he or anyone else seem other than well pleased with the turn affairs had taken.

Ethel and Blanche returned home the next day accompanied by their suitors, who were not long in entering their plea with the uncles who, knowing all about them as relatives of the Keiths, and fellow-soldiers and intimates of their own sons during the last year of the war, at once gave a hearty consent, and claimed the privilege and pleasure of entertaining the young men during their stay of a day or two in the city of brotherly love.

Ethel and Blanche were also persuaded to become for a few days the guests of their uncles, and it was only after the departure of Percy and Stuart that they went back again to their own little home and reopened their store.

Harry returned to them, and it was hard at first to feel that Nannette would never again make one of the little family, yet gradually they learned to do without her dear presence and to go cheerfully about their daily tasks--the care of house and store and the making up of garments, daintily adorned, for the trousseaus likely to be wanted for the coming year.

Harry was not displeased at the prospect before his sisters, yet felt, and sometimes remarked, that their gain would be his loss. Hearing him talk in that way one day, his Uncle George said:

"You must come back to your old home with us, my boy, when your sisters go. And if that does not satisfy you, perhaps we may decide to open a branch house in their town and put you in charge of it."

"Oh, Uncle George, what a delightful idea!" exclaimed Blanche; "for then all our little family would be together."