Page:Carroll Rankin--Dandelion Cottage.djvu/74

 54  "Thank you," said Jean, speaking for the household. "We'd just love to."

"Haven't you any children?" asked Bettie, sympathetically.

"Not one," replied Mrs. Crane. "I've never had any but I've always loved children."

"But I'm sure you have a lot of grandchildren," said Mabel, consolingly. "You look so nice and grandmothery."

"No," said Mrs. Crane, not appearing as sorrowful as Mabel had supposed an utterly grandchildless person would look, "I've never possessed any grandchildren either."

"But," queried Mabel, who was sometimes almost too inquisitive, "haven't you any relatives, husbands, or anybody, in all the world?"

Many months afterward the girls were suddenly reminded of Mrs. Crane's odd, contradictory reply:

"No—Yes—that is, no. None to