`` My dear , do n't cry ! I want you to come and stay with me until you get perfectly well . You wo n't be a speck of trouble , and I 'll be glad to have you for company . '' Mrs. Falconer 's Rubicon was crossed . She could not draw back now if she wanted to . But she was not at all sure that she did want to . By the time she reached home she was sure she did n't want to . And yet -- to give Missy 's room to Camilla ! It seemed a great sacrifice to Mrs. Falconer . She went up to it the next morning with firmly set lips to air and dust it . It was just the same as when Missy had left it long ago . Nothing had ever been moved or changed , but everything had always been kept beautifully neat and clean . Snow-white muslin curtains hung before the small square window . In one corner was a little white bed . Missy 's pictures hung on the walls ; Missy 's books and work-basket were lying on the square stand ; there was a bit of half-finished fancy work , yellow from age , lying in the basket . On a small bureau before the gilt-framed mirror were several little girlish knick-knacks and boxes whose contents had never been disturbed since Missy went away . One of Missy 's gay pink ribbons -- Missy had been so fond of pink ribbons -- hung over the top of the mirror . On a chair lay Missy 's hat , bright with ribbons and roses , just as Missy had laid it there on the night before she left her home . Mrs. Falconer 's lips quivered as she looked about the room , and tears came to her eyes . Oh , how could she put these things away and bring a stranger here -- here , where no one save herself had entered for fifteen years , here in this room , sacred to Missy 's memory , waiting for her return when she should be weary of wandering ?
It almost seemed to the mother 's vague fancy , distorted by long , silent brooding , that her daughter 's innocent girlhood had been kept here XXXXX her and would be lost forever if the room were given to another .
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