The midday visit seemed very short. September hours are brief to match
the shortening days. The great subject was dismissed for a while after
our visit to the Queen’s pictures, and my companions spoke much of
lesser persons until we drank the cup of tea which Mrs. Todd had
foreseen. I happily remembered that the Queen herself is said to like a
proper cup of tea, and this at once seemed to make her Majesty kindly
join so remote and reverent a company. Mrs. Martin’s thin cheeks took on
a pretty color like a girl’s. “Somehow I always have thought of her when
I made it extra good,” she said. “I’ve got a real china cup that
belonged to my grandmother, and I believe I shall call it hers now.”
“Why don’t you?” responded Mrs. Todd warmly, with a delightful smile.
Later they spoke of a promised visit which was to be made in the Indian
summer to the Landing and Green Island, but I observed that Mrs. Todd
presented the little parcel of dried herbs, with full directions, for a
cure-all in the spring, as if there were no real chance of their meeting
again first. As we looked back from the turn of the road the Queen’s
Twin was still standing on the doorstep watching us away, and Mrs. Todd
stopped, and stood still for a moment before she waved her hand again.
“There’s one thing certain, dear,” she said to me with great
discernment; “it ain’t as if we left her all alone!”
Then we set out upon our long way home over the hill, where we lingered
in the afternoon sunshine, and through the dark woods across the
heron-swamp.
XXIII.
WILLIAM’S WEDDING.