Acadians -- History -- Juvenile fiction; Nova Scotia -- Description and travel -- Juvenile fiction; Vacations -- Juvenile fiction
There were some entertaining books and portraits in the old library, and
after lingering over them a little while, the girls prepared to return
to the town. They took a last look at the old college before the
carriage drove away.
"Its surroundings are beautiful," exclaimed Amy, "but it doesn't compare
with Wellesley;" and before her eyes rose a picture of the College
Beautiful, with its lake, its hills and groves, and its many fine
buildings.
"I'm very glad, however," she added, "that we came here, for I have got
a certain impression from King's College that is quite worth having."
"So say we all of us," added Martine. And thus in an amiable frame of
mind the party returned to their boarding-house, pleased with their
sightseeing. Although none of the girls would admit that they were
tired, Mrs. Redmond suggested that all go to bed early.
"I'll agree," responded Martine, "if you'll come up first to my room."
Martine's room was large and pleasant, and even for so short a stay she
had thought it worth while to give it a few homelike touches.
Photographs of her parents and of one or two of her friends in
ornamental frames were on the mantelpiece, and over the mantelpiece
itself she had draped a soft foreign scarf. Her silver toilet articles
occupied the top of the bureau; for in spite of Priscilla's disapproval,
or perhaps because of it, she now carried these things in her suit case.
Slight though these little touches were, Martine had contrived to
relieve the room of its purely boarding-house aspect.
The house itself was plain, and both inside and out had a certain aspect
of flimsiness. This had been accounted for by some one who had told Mrs.
Redmond that it had been put up very hastily, immediately after the
recent fire. It had been built for a boarding-house and pretended to be
nothing else. It was airy and clean, but neither its landlady nor the
other boarders attracted the travellers sufficiently to incline them to
stay downstairs in the general sitting-room; so the three girls and Mrs.
Redmond sat and chatted in Martine's room, enjoying the box of
chocolates that she had opened for their especial pleasure.
"They ought to be good," she said, when Mrs. Redmond praised them. "They
came from Halifax;" and she glanced mischievously at Priscilla.
"From Halifax?" repeated Amy. "I suppose that's where most shopkeepers
in Windsor get their goods."
"Halifax by way of Windsor."
"No, no," retorted Martine, "not by way of Windsor at all; they came to
me by mail. You know I went down to the post-office the last moment
before we left Wolfville."
The others made no comment, but Priscilla and Amy exchanged glances, and
Priscilla's seemed to say:
"I told you so."
Before, however, anything could be said, Martine rushed to her bureau.
"I received a letter, too, at the same time," she cried, "and except for
these chocolates I never should have thought of it again."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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