And Betsy—­she never could remember afterward if she had been careful enough not to shout too loudly and joyfully—­Betsy cried out, “Oh, I love it here!” There they stood, face to face, looking at each other with honest and very happy eyes.  Aunt Prances threw her arm around Betsy and asked again, “Are you sure, dear?” and didn’t try to hide her relief.  And neither did Betsy.

“I could visit you once in a while, when you are somewhere near here,” suggested Betsy, beaming.

“Oh, yes, I must have some of the time with my darling!” said Aunt Frances.  And this time there was nothing in their hearts that contradicted their lips.

They clung to each other in speechless satisfaction as Uncle Henry guided the surrey up to the marble stepping-stone.  Betsy jumped out first, and while Uncle Henry was helping Aunt Frances out, she was dashing up the walk like a crazy thing.  She flung open the front door and catapulted into Aunt Abigail just coming out.  It was like flinging herself into a feather-bed ... .

“Oh!  Oh!” she gasped out.  “Aunt Frances is going to be married.  And travel around all the time!  And she doesn’t really want me at all!  Can’t I stay here?  Can’t I stay here?”

Cousin Ann was right behind Aunt Abigail, and she heard this.  She looked over their shoulders toward Aunt Frances, who was approaching from behind, and said, in her usual calm and collected voice:  “How do you do, Frances?  Glad to see you, Frances.  How well you’re looking!  I hear you are in for congratulations.  Who’s the happy man?”

Betsy was overcome with admiration for her coolness in being able to talk so in such an exciting moment.  She knew Aunt Abigail couldn’t have done it, for she had sat down in a rocking-chair, and was holding Betsy on her lap.  The little girl could see her wrinkled old hand trembling on the arm of the chair.

“I hope that means,” continued Cousin Ann, going as usual straight to the point, “that we can keep Betsy here with us.”

“Oh, would you like to?” asked Aunt Frances, fluttering, as though the idea had never occurred to her before that minute.  “Would Elizabeth Ann really like to stay?”

“Oh, I’d like to, all right!” said Betsy, looking confidently up into Aunt Abigail’s face.

Aunt Abigail spoke now.  She cleared her throat twice before she could bring out a word.  Then she said, “Why, yes, we’d kind of like to keep her.  We’ve sort of got used to having her around.”

That’s what she said, but, as you have noticed before on this exciting day, what people said didn’t matter as much as what they looked; and as her old lips pronounced these words so quietly the corners of Aunt Abigail’s mouth were twitching, and she was swallowing hard.  She said, impatiently, to Cousin Ann, “Hand me that handkerchief, Ann!” And as she blew her nose, she said, “Oh, what an old fool I am!”