CHAPTER XI.  Assisting Providence

Linda went to the library to see to what state of emptiness it had been reduced by the removal of several pieces of furniture she had ordered taken away that day.  As she stood on the threshold looking over the room as usual, a throb of loving appreciation of Katy swept through her heart.  Katy had been there before her.  The room had been freshly swept and dusted, the rugs had been relaid, the furniture rearranged skilfully, and the table stood at the best angle to be lighted either by day or night.  On the table and the mantel stood big bowls of lovely fresh flowers.  Linda was quite certain that anyone entering the room for the first time would have felt it completely furnished, and she doubted if even Marian would notice the missing pieces.  Cheered in her heart, she ran up to the billiard room, and there again Katy had preceded her.  The windows were shining.  The walls and floor had been cleaned.  Everything was in readiness for the new furniture.  Her heart full of gratitude, Linda went to her room, prepared her lessons for the next day, and then drew out her writing materials to answer Marian's letter.  She wrote:

I have an acute attack of enlargement of the heart.  So many things have happened since your leaving.  But first I must tell you about your sketch.  We just know you did not leave it here.  Katy says there was not a scrap in our bedroom when she cleaned it; and as she knows you make plans and how precious they are to you, I guarantee she would have saved it if she had found anything looking like a parallelogram on a piece of paper.  And I have very nearly combed the lawn, not only the north side, but the west, south, and east; and then I broke the laws and went over to your house and crawled through a basement window and worked my way up, and I have hunted every room in it, but there is nothing there.  You must have lost that sketch after you reached San Francisco.  I hope to all that's peaceful you did not lay it down in the offices of Nicholson and Snow, or where you take your lessons.  I know nothing about architecture, but I do know something about comfort in a home, and I thought that was the most comfortable and convenient-looking house I ever had seen.

Now I'll go on and tell you all the news, and I don't know which is the bigger piece to burst on you first.  Would you be more interested in knowing that Peter Morrison has bought three acres on the other side of the valley from us and up quite a way, or in the astonishing fact that I have a new dress, a perfect love of a dress, really too good for school?  You know there was blood in my eye w