At the batten door of her high, tight garden-fence Mlle. Yvonne, we repeat, let in Mme. De l'Isle and Mrs. Chester.  
"Mother of--ah-h-h!" Her rapture¹ was mated to such courteous² restraint that dinginess³ and dishevelment were easily overlooked. "And 'ow marvellouz that is, that you 'appen to come juz' when he--and us--we're getting that news of the manu'----"
 
"What! accepted?"
 
"Oh, that we di'n' hear yet! We only hear he's hear' something, but we're sure tha'z the only something he can hear!" She had begun to close the gate, but Mrs. Chester lingered in it.
 
"That fine large house and garden across the way," she said, "are they a Creole type?"
 
"Yes, bez' kind--for in the city. They got very few like that in the vieux carré, but up yonder in that beautiful garden diztric' of the nouveau quartier are many, where we'll perchanze go to live some day pritty soon. That old 'ouse we're inhabiting here, tha'z--like us, ha, ha!--a pritty antique. Tha'z mo' suit' for a relique than to live in, especially for Tantine--ha, ha!--tha'z auntie, yet tha'z what we call our niece. Aline--juz' in plaisanterie!--biccause she take' so much mo' care of us than us of her."
 
Mrs. Chester had stopped to look around her. "Whenever you move," she said, "you'll have to leave this delightful⁴ little garden behind; it won't fit out of these quaint⁵ surroundings."
 
"Ah! We won't want that any mo'!"
 
They pressed on. "That 'ouse acrozz street," said Mme. De l'Isle, "I notiz there the usual sign."
 
"Ah, yes, yes! 'For Sale or Rent'; tha'z what always predominate' in that poor vieux carré. But here is my sizter. Corinne, Mrs. Chezter, the mother of Mr. Chezter--as you see by the image of him in the face! I can have the boldnezz to say that, madame, biccause never in my life I di'n' see a young man so 'andsome like yo' son!"
 
The mother blushed--a lifelong failing. "At home," she said, "he's called his father's double."
 
"Is that possible? But tha'z the way with people. Some people they find Aline the image of Corinne, and some of me. Yet Corinne and me--look!"
 
The four went in--to the usual entertainment: the solid plank⁶ walls, the fine absence of lath and plaster, Aline's "li'l' robe of baptism," and the bridegroom and bride who had gone a lifetime without a change of linen⁷. They passed out into the rear garden and told wonderful stories of those gifted little darlings the goldfish. Hector, unfortunately absent, had a mouth-organ, to whose strains the fishes would listen so motionless that you could see they were spellbound. Yvonne ran back into the house to get it, but for some cause returned with nerves so shaken that the fishes would do nothing but run wildly to and fro. Still, that was just as startling proof of their amazing whatever-it-was!
 
Seats were not taken in the bower⁸. The declining sun filled it. Mrs. Chester moved fondly from one flower-bed to another, and while the sisters eagerly filled her hands with their choicest bloom Yvonne privately⁹ got a disturbed glance to Corinne that drew the four indoors again. There the outside quaintness¹⁰ tempted¹¹ Mrs. Chester at once to a front window, with Mlle. Yvonne at her side.
 
The front garden was not as the visitor had seen it shortly before while entering. She turned silently away, while mademoiselle, as though surprised, cried to her sister and Mme. De l'Isle: "Ah! Aline she's arrive'! Mrs. Chezter, 'ow tha'z fortunate for us all!"
 
So with the other three Mrs. Chester looked out again. Half-way up the walk stood Aline. Her back was to the house. Cupid was just inside the gate, and between them, closely confronting her, was a third figure--Geoffry Chester. The indoor company could see his face, but not its mood, so dazzling was the low sun behind him; but certainly it was not gay. Her hand lay in his through some parting speech, but fell from it as both returned toward the gate. Which Cupid opened--sad irony--for Chester, and while the child locked him out Aline came forward wrapped in sunlight.
 
By steps, as she came, her beauty of form, face, and soul grew on Mrs. Chester's sight, and when, in the house, with her su............