Page:Leah Reed--Brenda's summer at Rockley.djvu/262

244 her by taking the best of care of this gift of hers, and keeping the handkerchiefs—well, perhaps until she could  show them to her in Paris. It is n’t worth while, perhaps, to enumerate the liberty scarfs, pretty fans, and last, but  not least, the exquisite hat which Agnes produced from  her trunk for Brenda. Moreover, whatever there was for Brenda, had its duplicate for Julia. This had been part of the instructions sent to Agnes when her mother wrote  her regarding her return.

“I don’t see how you ever got it all in. They are so very strict now at the Custom House,” said Julia, after  thanking her cousin most warmly, and admiring all the  pretty things that she had brought to others.

Oh, I had n’t so very much of my own. I am going to get the most of my trousseau when I return to Paris. So the Custom House people thought that I was n’t bringing in any more than the proper amount for a young woman who had been abroad a year or two.”

“Well, they were very sensible. I should have used my influence against the Administration [does the child  know what she means? thought Agnes] if they had taken any of my pretty things away from you.”

“I’m glad they did n’t confiscate my lace scarf,” said Mrs. Barlow, holding up the filmy web that had been  Agnes’s chief present to her.

“I bought that in Brussells last spring,” said Agnes, “direct from the woman who made it. She was the most fascinating little creature, and to see her work was  the most marvellous thing. With that cushion before