She had never possessed a sister or anything little of her own to love, and it was a new experience to find a girl, rather small and younger than herself, who clung to her and seemed actually fond of her.

Life, which had hitherto been chilly and self-centered, suddenly grew warm.

She had been used to pose as one who disliked school, but with this fresh interest her views on the subject underwent a change.
Any girl must indeed have been hard to please who was not satisfied with the Villa Camellia and its beautiful Italian garden.

All through the month of February flowers were in bloom there which in England only peep out timidly in April or May, and often will not brave a northern climate at all.

The front of the house was covered with a glorious purple bougainvillea, violets bloomed under the orange and lemon trees, and the camellias, from which the villa took its name, flourished in profusion, growing as great trees ten or twelve feet high and covered with rose-colored, white, or scarlet blossoms.