"Oh, Rosanna, I am _so_ glad!" cried Claire. "You have been so good to me, and now you will still have your good time, only it will be much better because you have been so good to me. I am so glad, and mother will be so glad too when I tell her. Do you know about my mother, Mr.
Horton?"
"Your father told me this afternoon. We met downtown, and I congratulate you with all my heart."
"It is all due to Rosanna," said Claire softly. "Not one of the specialists or doctors discovered anything wrong with her skull, and I was so young when she fell from her horse that I never once connected it with her trouble. I should think you would be the next happiest girl in the world, Rosanna. _I_ am the happiest."
"I am very, very happy," confessed Rosanna. "It seems too good to be true that I am to go to France and the other places after all, and it is so good to go and remember what a happy summer you are having with your mother. I wish Helen Culver was here, so I could tell her how fortunate I am."
"You won't see her until you reach New York," said Uncle Bob with a twinkle in his eye, but looking very severely at the end of his cigarette.
"New York!" stammered Rosanna.
"That's right; I forgot to mention that she is going with us."
Rosanna leaned back in her chair and gasped.
"Uh, huh," said Uncle Bob. "Mrs. Culver wants to stay with her sister who is seriously ill, and so poor Helen will have to go with us."
"Oh, my!" gasped Rosanna.
"Everything is settled," said Uncle Bob.
"Oh, my!" said Rosanna again. "When do we go?"
"It will take me about a week to get ready," said Uncle Bob. "As soon as you can get packed, Rosanna, you may come down to the Seelbach with me.
I know Claire will have a lot to do to get ready for her mother. I notice whenever any of our family goes away and gets ready to come back, it is a signal for a mad bout of housecleaning. Everything the poor innocent absentee has or owns is torn up and hung out on the line, and beaten and dusted, and sent to the cleaners. And then all the chairs are set in new places so you don't dare come in in the dark and throw yourself down on your favorite divan, because it isn't there. Perhaps a tea-wagon full of china catches you or a frail, skiddy smoking stand, but the divan is gone."
Everyone laughed.
"You _are_ abused," said Rosanna.
"It is true," persisted Uncle Robert. "And when the absent one comes in, everyone stands around waiting to hear him or her say, 'Oh, my, how nice it looks.' Anyway, Rosanna, you come down and join me, and as soon as we hear from Culver, who has already gone to see his family, we will be off for New York. It will be hot traveling."
"I won't mind," said Rosanna, "and you really don't need me any longer, Claire, dear, and I think you ought to have your mother all to yourself."
"She will have to be very quiet for a good while," said Colonel Maslin, "but we won't mind that. Just to see her here or, if she is resting, to know that she is with us, will be happiness enough for us."
"I should think so!" said Rosanna. "Well, Uncle Bobby, I will come down tomorrow, and you can commence by taking me to the movies."
"Hear that?" cried Mr. Horton. "Indeed, your grandmother said, says she, 'Robert,' she says, 'see that Rosanna goes to bed at sharp seven every night. And also,' says she, 'no movies, or ice-cream sodas, or such!'"
"That sounds so like grandmother!" laughed Rosanna. "Well, I will see about things. Oh, Claire, dinner is over, let's go start packing now. I am _so_ excited!"
The girls excused themselves and raced upstairs, where Rosanna commenced laying things in neat piles on the divan to be placed in her trunk the first thing in the morning. There was a good deal to do the next day.
Cita had sent a list of things she wanted Rosanna to see about, and Mrs.
Horton had gone off without her favorite pair of glasses which she thought might be found in one of a number of places she named. So the house had to be opened, and Rosanna found the glasses, not in any of the places mentioned, but on the telephone stand where Mrs. Horton usually lost them. But as Rosanna looked there first, it really didn't matter.
She reached the Seelbach just in time to dress for dinner. It was great fun.
Uncle Bob sent up word that he would meet her at half-past six and Rosanna, feeling thrilled and grown up, finished dressing and sat down to wait. When Mr. Horton came in, he brought a little box with a bunch of sweet peas for Rosanna to wear. He was that kind of a man.
Time did not hang heavily on Rosanna's hands for the next few days. She spent one day with Mabel, and another in Lexington with Elise Hargrave.
Uncle Bob made but one rule, and that was an ironclad one. She must lie down for an hour each day. Uncle Bob did not want to start across the ocean with a worn-out little girl.
Jane and Estella came to see her, and there was talk of a picnic on Bald Mountain, but there was no time to put it through. One afternoon Rosanna gave a tea. It was a Girl Scout tea and was suggested by Uncle Bob, who seemed able to attend to an enormous amount of business and run the affairs of a little girl as well. It was served in the sitting-room that Rosanna and Uncle Bob shared. Elise came up from Lexington, and Rosanna found that about fifteen of their Troop were still in the city. The hotel people set a very pretty table for her, and Uncle Robert came in at noon with a box which he himself carefully opened. Inside were rows of tiny kewpie dolls dressed like little Girl Scouts. Rosanna was delighted.
"They just need one thing," said Uncle Robert, getting out his fountain pen and carefully inking some little dots on their sleeves.
"There!" he exclaimed when the deed was done. "Any Girl Scouts of _mine_ must have Merit badges."
Every one came, and after the first little stiffness it was a great success, especially when Uncle Robert came in bringing Colonel Maslin with him. You wouldn't believe how nice two grown men could be to a lot of Girl Scouts.
Jane was the first to say she must go. "We will see you tomorrow," she said, but Uncle Bob shook his head.
"It is good-bye today," he explained. "I am through with the business that brought me over on this side, and we will take the 8:40 through train tonight for the East, if Rosanna can get ready."
"I can be ready in an hour!" cried Rosanna. "Especially if Claire will stay and help me."
Claire looked at her father. "Of course I will help you, Rosanna dear, but I must go home first. Is the car here, dad?"
"Yes; I thought we could take some of these young ladies home," said the Colonel.
"And I will take the rest," offered Mr. Horton. There was a gust of good-byes and good wishes, and Rosanna was alone. It was almost six o'clock.
Rosanna had kept her trunk nearly packed, and by the time Claire returned the things that had been in her dresser were laid on the bed ready to put in the trays. Claire brought her a gorgeous embroidered kimono, a good-bye present from Mrs. Maslin. Just the loveliest thing to wear to the dressing-room, thought Rosanna, revelling in its deep color and beautiful handwork. The girls worked swiftly, and before Uncle Bob returned for dinner everything was ready, even to Rosanna's coat and hat and gloves and little change purse. She had put on her plain pongee traveling dress, fine cotton stockings that exactly matched her brown oxfords with their sensible low heels, and looked every inch a well-dressed traveler. Everything was simple and there were no tag ends, ribbons or floating lace collars to get mussed and untidy.
After dinner Uncle Bob excused himself to attend to some last things, and Claire and Rosanna returned to the rooms. There was an empty-looking spot where Rosanna's trunk had stood. Rosanna gave a last look at her things on the bed. Hat, coat, gloves, purse, suitcase; all there.
"Oh, _do_ come into the sitting-room!" cried Claire. "Everything is as all right as you can make it. Dad and Mr. Horton will be coming in before you know it, and there is something I want to tell you."
"Something nice?" asked Rosanna, following Claire into the sitting-room, and curling up in the big armchair she had wheeled around to face its mate.
"I hope so," said Claire with a queer little smile. "Now, Rosanna, I want you to promise on your Scout Honor that you will not interrupt me."
"Word of honor!" promised Rosanna.
"Remember!" warned Claire. "Well, there was once a girl, a Girl Scout, who was very troubled and unhappy. And she had a _perfectly horrid_ disposition and every time she went into a tantrum or had the blues she excused herself by thinking that because her dear mother was thought to be insane, she was going to be so too, and she never tried to control herself. She wouldn't make friends, and 'most _hated_ other girls because she thought they were so much luckier than she was. Oh, Rosanna, she treated her darling daddy just awfully. She feels so ashamed when she thinks of it."
Rosanna opened her mouth, but Claire laid her hand over it.
"Remember!" she warned. "So she met, through the Girl Scouts, a girl who tried to be her friend. And the bad, sad girl grew to see how much better it was to be gentle and keep her temper under control. Then one day Rosanna--for that was the nice girl's name--discovered the reason why this girl's mother was sick and why her poor head had gone wrong.
She found out why Claire's mother could not speak or remember anything and why she sat all day and stared and stared into space, and never knew her little girl any more.
"Well, anyway, now Claire's mother is _well_, all _well_, and just as sweet and bright and loving as ever, and _so_ happy! But surely not so happy as Claire is to have her mother back.
"And once, Rosanna, a wise old man who must have looked into the future, gave Claire a gold box to give to the one who should give to Claire a 'gift beyond price.' My mother is that, Rosanna. The Mandarin's box is yours!"
Claire drew a packet from her pocket and laid it in Rosanna's lap.