Waiting had been hard from the moment that the accomplishment of the work in the house left nothing more to be done, except to wait. After Mr. Moulton had gone it became unbearable.
“Suppose she missed the boat!” said Florimel, wriggling about in her chair on the piazza.
Mary and Jane laughed, but Jane said: “To tell the truth, I can’t help being scared to death for fear there’s been a collision and the ship’s sunk.”
“We’d hear that at once,” said Mary. “What I’ve been thinking is that she might have been taken ill and died on the way over.”
“Well, girls!” remonstrated Win. “I’d never have believed you’d have been breaking your necks to cross a bridge you hadn’t come to like this! It isn’t like you to imagine such catastrophes.”
“We never had a mother coming home before,” Florimel rem
