The letter contained several other things as well, which
showed Katy how continually she had been in his thoughts,--a painting on
rice paper, a dried flower or two, a couple of little pen-and-ink sketches
of the harbor of Santa Lucia and the shipping, and a small cravat of an
odd convent lace folded very flat and smooth. Altogether it was a
delightful letter, and Katy read it, as it were, in leaps, her eyes
catching at the salient points, and leaving the details to be dwelt upon
when she should be alone.
This done, she thrust the letter into her pocket, and proceeded to examine
the others. The first was in Cousin Helen's clear, beautiful
handwriting:--
DEAR KATY,--If any one had told us ten years ago that in this
particular year of grace you would be getting ready to be
married, and I preparing to come to your wedding, I think we
should have listened with some incredulity, as to an agreeable
fairy tale which could not possibly come true. We didn't look
much like it, did we,--you in your big chair and I on my sofa?
Yet here we are! When your letter first reached me it seemed a
sort of impossible thing that I should accept your invitation;
but the more I thought about it the more I felt as if I must,
and now things seem to be working round to that end quite
marvellously. I have had a good winter, but the doctor wishes me
to try the experiment of the water cure again which benefited me
so much the summer of your accident.
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