The Shield
THE SHIELD +--------------------------------------------------+ | THE NEWEST BORZOI BOOKS | | | | ASPHALT | | _By Orrick Johns_ | | | | BACKWATER | | _By Dorothy Richardson_ | | | | CENTRAL EUROPE | | _By Friedrich Naumann_ | | | | CRIMES OF CHARITY | | _By Konrad Bercovici_ | | | | RUSSIA'S MESSAGE | | _By William English Walling_ |
"Here's a letter from the old gentleman! Come quick, and read it!"
"Oh, Beth, he's sent you . . ." began Amy, gesticulating with
unseemly energy, but she got no further, for Jo quenched her by
slamming down the window.
Beth hurried on in a flutter of suspense. At the door her
sisters seized and bore her to the parlor in a triumphal procession,
all pointing and all saying at once, "Look there! Look there!" Beth
did look, and turned pale with delight and surprise, for there stood
a little cabinet piano, with a letter lying on the glossy lid, directed
like a sign board to "Miss Elizabeth March."
"For me?" gasped Beth, holding onto Jo and feeling as if she
should tumble down, it was such an overwhelming thing altogether.
"Yes, all for you, my precious! Isn't it splendid of him? Don't
you think he's the dearest old man in the world? Here's the key in
the letter. We didn't open it, but we are dying to know what he says,"
cried Jo, hugging her sister and offering the note.
"You read it! I can't, I feel so queer! Oh, it is too lovely!"
and Beth hid her face in Jo's apron, quite upset by her present.
Jo opened the paper and began to laugh, for the first words she
THE SHIELD +--------------------------------------------------+ | THE NEWEST BORZOI BOOKS | | | | ASPHALT | | _By Orrick Johns_ | | | | BACKWATER | | _By Dorothy Richardson_ | | | | CENTRAL EUROPE | | _By Friedrich Naumann_ | | | | CRIMES OF CHARITY | | _By Konrad Bercovici_ | | | | RUSSIA'S MESSAGE | | _By William English Walling_ |