lunch at a pretty restaurant that looked for all the world
like a rustic cottage, and then had returned to find Rob Vane waiting to
greet them, as they drew up to the house.

"Hello!" he called to them before they had alighted.

"How is this, that a fellow gets a week's vacation, and comes home from
school to find only servants to greet him?"

"Why, Robert, I am glad enough to have you home for a week. I thought
you were to stay at school for extra coaching?"

"That's what I wrote in my last letter," said Rob, "but I passed exams.
with flying colors. I was nervous, and feared I wasn't prepared, but
say! I was needlessly scared, for I not only 'passed,' but snatched the
prize for mathematics."

"I am proud of you, Robert, and your father will be pleased," Mrs. Vane
said, her fine eyes shining.

"And I'm proud of you, Rob," cried Vera, rushing at him, and clasping
her arms about him.

"Hi, Pussy Weather-vane, it's good to have a little sister," said Rob,
swinging her around until she was dizzy.

"Are you glad to see me, too?" he asked, laughing at her flushed cheeks,
and touzled, flaxen hair.

"Oh, Rob! _So_ glad, even if you do shake me up until I look wild," Vera
said, clinging to his arm, and dragging him toward the little guests.

"I dare to say he's the best brother in the world because neither one of
you has a brother, so you won't be offended."

"Spare my blushes, Vera," cried Rob. "Say, girls, I'm mighty glad to see
you. How long are you to stay? A week?"

"We are going back to Glenmore Saturday," Dorothy said, "and we start at
nine in the morning. There is no one at the Stone House but the
servants, and it was so lovely to come home with Vera."

"It surely was the best thing that you could do," Rob replied earnestly,
for he knew by a slight quiver in her voice that Dorothy was a bit
homesick.

Nancy heard the odd little quiver when Dorothy was speaking, and she
hastened to speak of cheery things.

"We've had just the dearest visit, and we've been to the theater, to a
big fair, to see a hall hung with beautiful pictures, and how we have
enjoyed it all!" she said.

"I'll do the entertaining to-morrow," said Rob. "I'll take you all to
see something that will be no end of fun."

"What will it be, Rob?" Vera asked, but Rob tweaked her curls, and
laughed.

"That's my secret," he said, and they had to be satisfied with that.

CHAPTER X

A LIVELY WEEK

Dorothy woke very early the next