Aria turned and looked at her. At first the elder sister was inclined to
say that she was not very surprised. A dream that has made much
impression on one is apt to return, especially in this case, remembering
their conversation the previous evening. But the sight of Linde's happy
and excited face checked her.
"I must not damp her hopefulness," she thought, "and after all--who
knows?"--"Was it the same as before?" she asked, "exactly the same old
woman and all?"
"Yes," Linde replied, "just the same. We were in the market, and she
came by, and then stopped and seemed to be attracted by the rose-leaves'
scent. Then I felt her eyes on me and heard her voice--low but
clear--saying----," and here the little girl interrupted herself, "Oh
yes, there were just two words different, and that makes it seem more
real. She did not say 'three times,' but '_twice_ more and then ask the
robin.' I wonder," Linde continued, "I wonder if possibly we shall see
her herself. No--I don't think we shall. I feel that she can only come
in dreams."
They were at their place in the market in good time as usual. Their
posies of late flowers and autumn foliage had, alas, diminished, but
their supply of the fragrant leaves was rather larger than the week
before, for, influenced perhaps by the "twice more" of Linde's dream
visitor, Aria had divided the contents of the jar into two equal
portions, each of which proved to be rather more than the first lot she
had carried off for sale. In fact the useful tin canister was this time
completely filled.
And the demand for their new wares was even greater than the last time.
Dame Barbara and her friends had spread the fame of the wonderful
leaves. Aria could have sold what she had twice over, and more than one
of her customers assured her that if she could keep up the supply during
the winter, orders would be forthcoming from more distant parts of the
country.
"I mean to make pretty bags and fill them with your leaves, for
Christmas presents to my friends," said one smiling young lady. "So
don't forget that I shall want ever so much of them a little later on,"
and Aria thanked her and wisely refrained from saying that she feared
her stock was all but exhausted.
"Don't be too sure of that," said Linde, when Aria sighed about it. "My
hopes have risen sky-high since the dream came again, though how we are
to 'ask the robin,' seeing that none of his kind ever come near us, or
how he could help us if we did come across him, is more than I can in
any way imagine! And after all, we have still enough leaves for next
market-day, which will be the _third_ time."
"Yes," Aria agreed, "it is much the best to hope on and keep up our
spirits. And for the present we have no reason to despond. My old purse
is delightfully well filled to-day even though I could not make up my
mind to raise the price of the leaves as Dame Barbara urged me to do. I
felt somehow as if it would not bring me good luck."
"I felt the same," said Linde.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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