"Why, of course. I couldn't sleep a wink until I'd seen her. It has been seven years, and it seems a perfect eternity." "She hasn't changed much--at least she hadn't six months ago when I was out there at the birth of her last baby. The little thing lived only two hours, you know, and I thought at first his death would kill her." "It was a great blow--but she has been fortunate never to have had a day's sickness with the other three. I am dying to see them--especially the eldest. That's your namesake, isn't it?" "Yes, that's Lucy. She's six years old now, and as good as an angel, but she hasn't fulfilled her promise of beauty. Virginia says she was the prettiest baby she ever saw." "Everybody says that Jenny, the youngest, is a perfect beauty." "That's why her father makes so much of her, I reckon. I told him when I was out there that he oughtn't to show such a difference between them. Do you know, Susan, I wouldn't say it to anybody else, but I don't believe Oliver has a real fondness for children. He gets tired of having them always about, and that makes him impatient. Now, Virginia is a born mother, just like her grandmother and all the women of our family." "I should think Oliver would be crazy about the boy. He was named after his father, too." "Virginia felt she ought to name him Henry, but we call him Harry. No, Oliver hardly ever takes any notice of him. I don't mean, of course, that he isn't nice and kind to them--but he isn't wrapped up in them heart and soul as Virginia is. I really believe he is more absorbed in this play he has written than he is in the children." "I am so glad to hear that two of his plays are going to be staged. That's splendid, isn't it?" "He is coming back to Dinwiddie because of it. Now that he is assured of recognition, he says he is going to devote all his time to writing. Poor fellow, he did so hate the work out at Matoaca City, though I must say he was very faithful and persevering about it." "You've taken that little house in Prince Street for them, where old Miss Franklin used to live, haven't you? The last time I saw you, you hadn't quite decided about it." "I couldn't resist it because it is only three squares from the rectory. Mr. Pendleton set his heart on it from the first minute." "Well, I'm so glad," said Susan, shifting the small basket of fruit she carried from one arm to the other, "and I'll certainly run in and see them this evening--I suppose they'll be at the rectory for supper?" "Why, no. Jinny said she couldn't bear to be away from the children the first night, so we are all going there. I shall send Docia over to cook supper before they get here, and I've just been to market to see if I could find anything that Oliver would particularly like. He used to be so fond of sweetbreads." "Mr. Dewlap has some very nice ones. I got one for mother. She hasn't been well for the last few days."