"No. It must have come after I went out. What was it?"

"Seven yards of beautiful nun's lace which she bought in Florence. She
says it is to trim a morning dress; but it's really too pretty. How dear
Polly is! She sends me something almost every day. I seem to be in her
thoughts all the time. It is because she loves Ned so much, of course;
but it is just as kind of her."

"I think she loves you almost as much as Ned," said Clover.

"Oh, she couldn't do that; Ned is her only brother. There is Amy at the
gate now."

It was a much taller Amy than had come home from Italy the year before who
was walking toward them under the budding locust-boughs. Roman fever had
seemed to quicken and stimulate all Amy's powers, and she had grown very
fast during the past year. Her face was as frank and childlike as ever,
and her eyes as blue; but she was prettier than when she went to Europe,
for her cheeks were pink, and the mane of waving hair which framed them in
was very becoming. The hair was just long enough now to touch her
shoulders; it was turning brown as it lengthened, but the ends of the
locks still shone with childish gold, and caught the sun in little shining
rings as it filtered down through the tree branches.

She kissed Clover several times, and gave Katy a long, close hug; then
she produced a parcel daintily hid in silver paper.

"Tanta," she said,--this was a pet name lately invented for Katy,--"here
is something for you from mamma. It's something quite particular, I think,
for mamma cried when she was writing the note; not a hard cry, you know,