I felt my own heart beat as I stood there so still and solemn. There was a great awe in going out of the old life and putting on the new, belonging to yourself one moment, and the next having the sense of ownership irrevocably taken away. I shivered a little wondering how any one could be glad to do it. Some day Fan would stand there, and I would feel her gone out of my life.
Then Mrs. Whitcomb had to return to get the house in order. Louis expected to enter Columbia College. Stephen thought it better on account of his health, and the home influence. Stuart would be away another year.
Enclosed in her letter was a note to mamma. Would it be agreeable for Louis to spend a week or ten days with us? He was very anxious so to do.
“Of course,” answered mamma.
Indeed we were pleased with the opportunity of seeing him. Somehow he had become quite a hero in our eyes.
I really do not think I should have known him elsewhere. I was up in my room sitting on the low window-sill in the breeze, reading a magazine. The blinds were tied a little apart, bowed, and as I heard the gate click I looked down. He was nearly as tall as Stephen, and though slender had filled out to a certain manly roundness. He nodded to some one, threw back his head and laughed, and he was positively handsome. His complexion was dark but no longer sallow, it had the bronze tint of exposure and a healthful red in the cheeks. His black hair was cropped pretty close, but it showed his broad forehead, and there was a tiny line of dark moustache that contrasted with the fresh scarlet of his lips.
I ran down. Mamma and Edith were on the porch. I do really believe that mamma had been kissing him, at all events his face was flushed and his eyes had a soft, dewy look.
“You are the same, you haven’t altered a bit! It was so good of you to let me come.”
“Why, we wanted to see you,” replied mamma.
He was still holding my hands, and I could not help blushing under his steady gaze.