You gave me quite a turn, you did." Eugenia laughed.

"I had to let off steam in some way," she said; "and really, Eliot, you can't imagine how glad I am.

They're cousins of papa's, you know, the Shermans are.

I used to know Lloyd when they lived in New York.

We played together every day, and fussed--my eyes, how we fussed! But that was before she could talk plain, and she must be eleven now, for she's about two years younger than I am." Perching herself on the bed among piles of snowy linen, Eugenia clasped her hands around her knees and began to tell all she could remember of the Little Colonel.