Yesterday was the most wonderful day that could ever happen. If I live
to be ninety-nine I shall never forget the tiniest detail. The girl
that left Lock Willow at dawn was a very different person from the one
who came back at night. Mrs. Semple called me at half-past four. I
started wide awake in the darkness and the first thought that popped
into my head was, 'I am going to see Daddy-Long-Legs!' I ate breakfast
in the kitchen by candle-light, and then drove the five miles to the
station through the most glorious October colouring. The sun came up
on the way, and the swamp maples and dogwood glowed crimson and orange
and the stone walls and cornfields sparkled with hoar frost; the air
was keen and clear and full of promise. I knew something was going to
happen. All the way in the train the rails kept singing, 'You're going
to see Daddy-Long-Legs.' It made me feel secure. I had such faith in
Daddy's ability to set things right. And I knew that somewhere another
man--dearer than Daddy--was wanting to see me, and somehow I had a
feeling that before the journey ended I should meet him, too. And you
see!
When I came to the house on Madison Avenue it looked so big and brown
and forbidding that I didn't dare go in, so I walked around the block
to get up my courage. But I needn't have been a bit afraid; your
butler is such a nice, fatherly old man that he made me feel at home at
once. 'Is this Miss Abbott?' he said to me, and I said, 'Yes,' so I
didn't have to ask for Mr. Smith after all. He told me to wait in the
drawing-room. It was a very sombre, magnificent, man's sort of room. I
sat down on the edge of a big upholstered chair and kept saying to
myself:'I'm going to see Daddy-Long-Legs! I'm going to see Daddy-Long-Legs!'
Then presently the man came back and asked me please to step up to the
library. I was so excited that really and truly my feet would hardly
take me up. Outside the door he turned and whispered, 'He's been very
ill, Miss. This is the first day he's been allowed to sit up. You'll
not stay long enough to excite him?' I knew from the way he said it
that he loved you--an I think he's an old dear!
Then he knocked and said, 'Miss Abbott,' and I went in and the door
closed behind me.
It was so dim coming in from the brightly lighted hall that for a
moment I could scarcely make out anything; then I saw a big easy chair
before the fire and a shining tea table with a smaller chair beside it.
And I realized that a man was sitting in the big chair propped up by
pillows with a rug over his knees. Before I could stop him he
rose--rather shakily--and steadied himself by the back of the chair and
just looked at me without a word. And then--and then--I saw it was
you! But even with that I didn't understand. I thought Daddy had had
you come there to meet me or a surprise.