"Somebody coming, but not for a visit?" queried Rose.

"You're getting warmer."

"How can anybody come, if not for a visit?" inquired Isabel, mildly
perplexed. "That is, unless it's a messenger?"

"The old Kent house is to be opened," said Madame, "and we're to open
it. At last we shall have neighbours!"

"How exciting," Rose answered. She did not wholly share the old lady's
pleasure, and wondered with a guilty consciousness of the long hours she
spent at her music, whether Aunt Francesca had been lonely.

"Listen, girls!" Madame's cheeks were pink with excitement as she sat
down with the letter, which had been written in Paris.

"MY DEAR MADAME FRANCESCA:

"'At last we are coming home--Allison and I. The boy has a fancy to see
Spring come again on his native heath, so we shall sail earlier than we
had otherwise planned.

"'I wonder, my dear friend, if I dare ask you to open the house for us?
I am so tired of hotels that I want to go straight back. You have the
keys and if you will engage the proper number of servants and see that
the place is made habitable, I shall be more than ever your debtor. I
will cable you when we start.

"'Trusting that all is well with you and yours and with many thanks,