“Oh, my!  Don’t I wish he was my pa!” cried Rose Red.  Then the stage moved on.

“Who are they?  What’s their name?” asked the girls.  “They look nice.”

“They’re sort of cousins of mine, and they come from the West,” replied Lilly, not unwilling to own the relationship, now that she perceived that Dr. Carr had made a favorable impression.

“Why on earth didn’t you introduce them, then?  I declare that was just like you, Lilly Page,” put in Rose Red, indignantly.  “They looked so lonesome that I wanted to pat and stroke both of ’em.  That little one has the sweetest eyes!”

Meantime Katy and Clover entered the hotel, very glad of the reprieve, and of one more quiet evening alone with papa.  They needed to get their ideas straightened out and put to rights, after the confusions of the day and Lilly’s extraordinary talk.  It was very evident that the Nunnery was to be quite different from their expectations; but another thing was equally evident,—­it would not be dull!  Rose Red by herself, and without any one to help her, would be enough to prevent that!

CHAPTER IV.  THE NUNNERY.

The night seemed short; for the girls, tired by their journey, slept like dormice.  About seven o’clock, Katy was roused by the click of a blind, and, opening her eyes, saw Clover standing in the window, and peeping out through the half-opened shutters.  When she heard Katy move, she cried out,—­

“Oh, do come!  It’s so interesting!  I can see the colleges and the church, and, I guess, the Nunnery; only I am not quite sure, because the houses are all so much alike.”

Katy jumped up and hurried to the window.  The hotel stood on one side of a green common, planted with trees.  The common had a lead-colored fence, and gravel paths, which ran across it from corner to corner.  Opposite the hotel was a long row of red buildings, broken by one or two brown ones, with cupolas.  These were evidently the colleges, and a large gray building with a spire was as evidently the church; but which one of the many white, green-blinded house which filled the other sides of the common, was the Nunnery, the girls could not tell.  Clover thought it was one with a garden at the side; but Katy thought not, because Lilly had said nothing of a garden.  They discussed the point so long that the breakfast bell took them by surprise, and they were forced to rush through their dressing as fast as possible, so as not to keep papa waiting.

When breakfast was over, Dr. Carr told them to put on their hats, and get ready to walk with him to the school.  Clover took one arm, and Katy the other, and the three passed between some lead-colored posts, and took one of the diagonal paths which led across the common.

“That’s the house,” said Dr. Carr, pointing.

“It isn’t the one you picked out, Clover,” said Katy.