Cynthia dropped into thought.
"Then my duty now is to study. I like it; that is, I like a good many things in it. And when my father comes home it will be changed, I suppose. You can't stay a little girl always."
"But you will have to learn to keep house," returned Eunice.
"Oh, I'll have some one to do that. Men never have to cook or keep house. Oh, yes; all the cooks on the ship were men. Wasn't that funny!" she continued.
She laughed with so much innocent merriment that Miss Eunice laughed too.
"I suppose you have to do various things in your life," she sagely remarked, after a pause.
"Then you must learn to do the various things now."
"I believe I won't ever get married. I'll live with father always, and we will have some one to keep the house, and Rachel will make the clothes. And I'll read aloud to father. We'll have a carriage and go out riding, and talk about India. I remember so many things just by thinking them over. Isn't it queer, when for a long time they have gone out of your mind? Oh, dear Cousin Eunice, what makes you sigh?"
Cousin Eunice took off her glasses, wiped them vigorously, and then wiped her eyes.
"It is a bad habit I have." But she was thinking of the dream of the little girl that could never come true.