Aunt Katherine now handed the letter to Elsie and turned back to Kate to remark: “Your mother, on accepting my invitation for you, mentioned the fact that you were lonely, in need of friends as much as Elsie. But I don’t see how any one could be more companionable or amusing than these boys, from your descriptions and this letter.”
Kate glowed at Aunt Katherine’s appreciation of Sam and Lee. “Oh, Mother meant _girl_ friends. There just doesn’t happen to be any one near my age in Ashland. And while boys are all right, they aren’t exactly the same.”
Elsie had lost some of her indifference and coldness over the letter. She was almost smiling, in fact. Now she was actually smiling. Kate beamed. This was certainly the most natural minute and the happiest since her arrival. She blessed the Hart boys for having created it.
But Aunt Katherine was surprised when it developed that the girls had not been exploring the countryside in the car that morning.
“Didn’t you use Timothy at all?” she asked.
“Just for errands in the town. Kate wrote letters and I picked and arranged flowers, and read ‘The King of the Fairies.’”
“One would think, Elsie, you possessed only one book. When are you going to finish with ‘The King of the Fairies’?”
“Oh, I don’t know.” Elsie’s tone had fallen suddenly into sulkiness.
But though Aunt Katherine did not seem to notice the sudden chilling of the atmosphere, Kate did and spoke quickly, a trifle nervously.
“Haven’t you read ‘The King of the Fairies,’ Aunt Katherine?”
“Why, no. It’s a fairy story, a child’s book. It surprises me that Elsie, a big girl of fifteen, finds it so fascinating.”
“Mother finds it fascinating, too,” Kate hurried to assure her. “And I know it just about by heart. Mother keeps saying it’s the most beautiful love story she ever read. And even the boys like it. They felt just the way you do about its title. But once they got into it they couldn’t stop. If you read it yourself you’d see why.”
Kate was fairly radiant with her enthusiasm about this book. Her aunt smiled into her eager eyes. “I shall certainly look it over, then,” she promised. “It must be an unusual book to inspire such loyalty.”
“I’ll bring my copy down and put it on your reading table right after luncheon.”