Page:A Girl of the Limberlost.djvu/366

346 a gray satin with lavender orchids to wear with the silk dress. Her last investment was a loose coat of soft gray broadcloth with white lining, and touches of lavender on the embroidered collar, and gray gloves to match. Then she went home, rested and worked by turns until Monday. When school closed on that evening, and Elnora, so tired she almost trembled, came down the long walk after a late session of teachers' meeting, a messenger boy stopped her. "There's a lady wants to see you most important. I am to take you to the place," he said. Elnora groaned. She could not imagine who wanted her, but there was nothing to do but go and find out, tired and anxious to see her mother as she was. "This is the place," said the boy, and went his way whistling. Elnora was three blocks from the high school building on the same street. She was before a quaint old house, fresh with paint and covered with vines. There was a long wide lot, grass-covered, closely set with trees, and a barn and chicken park at the back that seemed to be occupied. Elnora stepped on the veranda which was furnished with straw rugs, bent-hickory chairs, hanging baskets, and a table with a work-box and magazines, and knocked at the screen door. Inside she could see bare polished floors, walls freshly papered in low-toned harmonious colours, straw rugs and madras curtains. It seemed to be a restful, homelike place to which she had come, and a second later down an open stairway came a tall, dark-eyed woman with cheeks