under the triumphal arch that still spanned the garden-door of the house.

Dora had been peeping at them as they sat clustered about their mother in
an attentive group under the apple-tree. She had now a good chance to
examine each child, as they walked slowly back to the house, and as the
last one disappeared, she said, softly sighing, "Oh, if I could sit only
just once with them under the apple-tree!"

At supper that evening Aunt Ninette said, "We have really had a few hours
of quiet. If it goes on so, we shall be able to stay here after all. Don't
you think so, dear Titus?"

Dora listened breathlessly for the answer.

"The air in my room is very close, and I suffer more from giddiness than I
did at home," was the uncle's reply.

Dora gazed at her plate despondently, and lost her appetite for that
supper. Mrs. Ehrenreich broke out into lamentations It was provoking to
have made this journey without its being of any use to her husband after
all! If they had only moved away at once! However, perhaps there would be
less noise over the hedge after this, and the windows could be opened!
Dora's hopes rose again, for as long as they staid, there was always a
chance that she might go into that garden once, at least once.




CHAPTER V.