When the guests were ushered in, Madame advanced to meet them. The
firelight had brought a rosy glow to her lovely face, and her deep eyes
smiled. Allison put his violin case in a corner before he spoke to her.
"Did you really?" asked Madame. "How kind you are!"
"I brought it," laughed the young man, "just because you didn't ask me
to."
"Do you always," queried Rose, after he had been duly presented to her,
"do the things you're not asked to do?"
"Invariably," he replied.
"Allison," said Madame, "I want you to meet my niece once removed--Miss
Ross." The Colonel had already bowed to Isabel and was renewing his old
acquaintance with Rose.
"Not Isabel," said Allison, in astonishment.
"Yes," answered the girl, her eyes sparkling with excitement, "it's
Isabel."
"Why, little playmate, how did you ever dare to grow up?"
"I had nothing else to do." "But I didn't want you to grow up," he
objected.
"You've grown up some yourself," she retorted.
"I suppose I have," he sighed. "What a pity that the clock won't stand
still!"
Yet, to Madame, he did not seem to have changed much.
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