“And a good workman,” interposed Rosa.

“Then we have every adjunct for success,” said Alice, “and we will commence just where we left off at Mrs. Chessman’s.”

The work on the book progressed famously.  Alice was in fine mental condition and Rosa seemingly took as much interest in its progress as did her employer.  In three weeks the three opening chapters had been written.  “I wonder what Mr. Sawyer and Mr. Ernst will think of that?” said Alice, as Rosa wrote the last line of the third chapter.

“I am going to write to Mr. Sawyer to-day.  We must have those books before we can go much farther.  Would it not be well to tell him that we are ready for our audience?”

Alice assented, and the letter reached Quincy one Friday evening, it being his last call on his aunt before her departure for Old Orchard.  “Give my love to both of them,” said Aunt Ella, “and tell Alice I send her a kiss.  I won’t tell you how to deliver it; you will probably find some way before you come back.”

Quincy protested that he could not undertake to deliver it, but his aunt only laughed, kissed him, bade him good-by, and told him to be sure and come down to Maine to see her.

Quincy and Leopold took the Saturday afternoon boat and arrived, as usual, about seven o’clock.  They both repaired to the hotel previously patronized by Quincy, having decided to defer their call upon the young ladies until Sunday morning.  It was a bright, beautiful day, not a cloud was to be seen in the broad, blue expanse above them.  A cool breeze was blowing steadily from the southwest, and as the young men walked down Centre Street towards the Cliff, Leopold remarked that he did not wonder that the Nantucketers loved their “tight little isle” and were sorry to leave it.  “One seems to be nearer Heaven here than he does in a crowded city, don’t he, Quincy?” Quincy thought to himself that his Heaven was in Nantucket, and that he was very near to it, but he did not choose to utter these feelings to his friend, so he merely remarked that the sky did seem much nearer.

They soon reached Mrs. Gibson’s and were shown directly to the young ladies’ parlor and library, for it answered both purposes.  They were attired in two creations of Mrs. Chessman’s dressmaker, Aunt Ella having selected the materials and designed the costumes, for which art she had a great talent.  Rosa’s dress was of a dark rose tint, with revers and a V-shaped neck, filled in with tulle of a dark green hue.  The only other trimming on the dress was a green silk cord that bordered the edges of the revers and the bottom of the waist.  As Quincy looked at her, for she sat nearest to the door, she reminded him of a beautiful red rose, and the green leaves which enhanced its beauty.  Then his eyes turned quickly to Alice, who sat in her easy-chair, near the window.  Her dress was of light blue, with square-cut neck, filled in with creamy white lace.  In her hair nestled a flower, light pink in color, and as Quincy looked at her he thought of the little blue flower called forget-me-not, and recalled the fact that wandering one day in the country, during his last year at college, he had come upon a little brook, both sides of which, for hundreds of feet, were lined with masses of this modest little flower.  Ah! but this one forget-me-not was more to him than all the world beside.