"Our pretty things make it look almost too nice for the purpose," she continued, handling a precious relic, a Sevres cup and saucer, that had been her especial pride in old days. "I think you were wrong, Phil, not to have the china in the other room."
"No, indeed; I want people to see it and be struck with our taste," was Phillis's frank answer. "Think what pleasure it will give the poor ladies when their dresses are being tried on. Don't you remember the basket of wax fruit at Miss Slinders's, when we were small children? I thought it the loveliest work of art, and feasted my eyes all the time Miss Slinders was fitting my pink frock. Now, our pictures and china will refresh people's eyes in the same way."
Nan smiled and shook her head, as she dusted and arranged her treasures. The china was very dear to her,--far more than the books Phillis was arranging on the chiffonnier. The Dresden figures that Dick had given to her mother were among them. She did not care for strangers to look at them and appraise their value. They were home treasures,--sacred relics of their past. The last time she had dusted them, a certain young man of her acquaintance had walked through the open window whistling "Blue bonnets over the Border," and had taken up his station beside her, hindering her work with his chattering. Dulce was in the upper regions, unpacking a box in her mother's room. Mrs. Challoner was coming home the next day, and Dorothy and she were hard at work getting things in order.
When Phillis made her downright speech, Nan looked down from her lofty perch, and held out her arms for the curtain.
"Richard is always himself, my dear," she said, softly. "Do you know when you are down, Phil, I feel as though we are all at a stand-still, and there's no getting on at all? and then at one of your dear droll speeches the sunshine comes out again, and we are all as right as possible."
"Don't talk nonsense," was Phillis's blunt answer; but she could not help being pleased at the compliment. She looked up archly at Nan, as the mass of soft white drapery lay between them; and then they both broke into a laugh, just as two shadows seemed to glide past the window, and a moment afterwards the house-bell sounded. "Visitors!--oh, Nan!" And Phillis glanced down at the neat bib apron that she wore over her cambric dress.