her way, and Belle was a good creature.

"You are to go in at once, Miss Cameron," she called out, almost
before she reached us. "Miss Majoribanks has sent me to look for you;
your uncle is with her in the drawing-room."

"Uncle Geoffrey? Oh, my dear Uncle Geoff!" I exclaimed, joyfully.
"Do you really mean it, Belle?"

"Yes, Dr. Cameron is in the drawing-room," repeated Belle. But I
never noticed how grave her voice was. She commenced whispering to
Jessie almost before I was a yard away, and I thought I heard an
exclamation in Jessie's voice; but I only said to myself, "Oh, my
dear Uncle Geoff!" in a tone of suppressed ecstasy, and I looked
round on the croquet players as I threaded the lawn with a sense of
pity that not one of them possessed an uncle like mine.

Miss Majoribanks was seated in state, in her well-preserved black
satin gown, with her black gloves reposing in her lap, looking rather
like a feminine mute; but on this occasion I took no notice of her. I
actually forgot my courtesy, and I am afraid I made one of my awkward
rushes, for Miss Majoribanks groaned slightly, though afterward she
turned it into a cough.

"Why, Esther, you are almost a woman now," said my uncle, putting me
in front of him, and laying his heavy hand on my shoulder. "Bless me,
how the child has grown, and how unlike she is to Carrie!"

"I was seventeen yesterday," I answered, pouting a little, for I
understood the reference to Carrie; and was I not the ugly duckling?