After this they were to correspond until midsummer, when they would meet again.
There was another embarrassment to be gone through with. A few days afterward Miss Churchill came over. Obeying her first impulse, Fan ran away with blushing cheeks. Mamma and Miss Churchill had a good long talk to themselves. But after awhile Fan was compelled to make her appearance.
“My dear child;” and Miss Churchill just took her in her arms and kissed her. “We all think it very delightful to have a claim upon you.”
The tears sprang to Fan’s eyes. It was sweet indeed to be so warmly welcomed. Mamma was a little touched by it, too.
“I was very much surprised, and I scolded Lucy roundly for keeping the secret from me. But if we had chosen we could not have suited ourselves better. And now, my dear, go get yourself ready, for I am going to take you home with me and keep you all night. Lucy is wild to see you.”
Fanny looked at mamma who nodded assent, so she left us rather lingeringly.
“My dear Mrs. Endicott,” and Miss Churchill came around, laying her hand on mamma’s shoulder, “I think if I have ever envied any one in the world, it is you, since I have come to know you thoroughly. These charming girls growing up beside you should be a crown of content to any woman.”
“I have been very happy with my husband and children;” and mamma’s eyes glistened.
“Circumstances shut me out of such hopes. I suppose we all have our little romances in youth. I too have had a pleasant life, and my sister has needed my care, so that I do not feel wasted;” and she smiled. “But I think I was in danger of making my life rather too narrow. We need something fresh and different from ourselves. Even we who have the strength to stand alone, like the sweet, tender sense of a trailing vine reaching towards our hearts. A breath out of some other living which enters into or demands our sympathy makes us so much more of kin to the whole world.”
“Indeed it does,” replied mamma warmly. “When you learn to give and to take out of each other’s sphere and experience, the actual richness and breadth of existence is made manifest.”