Page:Elizabeth Jordan--Tales of the city room.djvu/185

 at liberty to tell you girls all about it,—you dear girls who have been so good to me. I shall never forget that. Do you suppose I have n't realized how fine it has been of you to take me as I am, without a question even in your manner,—to take me into your big hearts so thoroughly and so warmly? Every day and every night I 've thought of the goodness of it and the beauty of it. I 've known how strange my reserve must have seemed to you. Any one but you would have tried to break through it, and would have asked me about the past I seemed so anxious to conceal."

She looked at them fondly, her eyes resting longest on Miss Herrick, who smiled back at her in warm responsiveness. Virginia Imboden had colored a little, but was looking at the new arrival with a reflection of the other woman's joy in her clear eyes. Miss Neville and Mrs. Ogilvie were eloquently silent. Alice Bertram's glance swept round the circle and rested reflectingly on a ring on Miss Herrick's hand, which she had kept in her own. She twisted this about rather nervously as she continued.