"But it will be hot weather, then," said Heavy; "and I don't want to miss Light-house Point."
"And I'm just about crazy to get back to Silver Ranch," said Ann Hicks.
"Me for Cliff Island," cried Belle Tingley. "No land of cotton for mine, this summer."
"When is your aunt coming, Nettie?" asked Ruth.
"To see you graduate, my dear," replied the Southern girl, smiling. "And wait till she meets you, Ruthie Fielding! She'll near about love you to death!"
"Oh, everybody loves Ruth. Why shouldn't they?" cried Belle.
"But everybody doesn't give her a fortune, as Nettie's Aunt Rachel did," laughed Heavy.
Ruth wished they would not talk so much about that money; but, of course, she could not stop them. She made no rejoinder, but looked across the room and out at the upper pane of one of the long windows. It was deep dusk now without. The evening was clear, with a rising wind moaning through the trees on the campus.
Tony Foyle, the old gardener and general handy man, was only now lighting the lamps along the walks.
"There's a funny red star," Ruth said to Helen. "It can't be that Mars is rising there."