“I should want to be alive even if I were Lilian Boyd. I think it is a grand world, and there is so much happening all the time. And I don’t care so much about being rich—”
“But you will and your mother is so lovely. Major Crawford looks rather stern and that handsome young man—what a pity he’s to follow the sea, unless he gets to be an Admiral, and then he’ll have to be quite old. I’d rather be at West Point. Oh, I wish I had a brother.”
Marguerite looked pityingly at the silly girl. Then she asked about the play. Miss Nevins had been to the theatre and wanted to remodel the simple little story, and there had been some warm arguments.
“I must go and see Miss Arran.” There was no use disputing proprieties with the overwise girl. But she hoped they had all begun a Happy New Year.
Alice followed her into the hall. “You are coming back to school and now we can be real good friends. Oh, I just love you and I’m so glad all this happened to you.” Before Marguerite could evade it she had given her a rapturous kiss which the girl rubbed off an instant later.
Miss Arran was truly glad to see her and they exchanged warm wishes.
“We have a new caretaker, quite a young woman, but I do not take a real fancy to her. Your mother, oh, excuse me saying that—was so neat and particular and did every thing so well.”
Marguerite smiled. She had often added touches of order and neatness, and kept the room tidy with a taste that never appealed to Mrs. Boyd. Though, perhaps, it had in her earlier years. The young girl could understand now, how gradually she had failed.
And there was Mrs. Dane with her cordial grasp and the heartiness of her greeting. Whatever distrust she might have had had vanished.
“We are so glad to have you back again,” she exclaimed, “and such a bright future opening before you, though I must have given you the same respect if you had been here teaching. Mrs. Barrington doesn’t often take such a fancy to anyone. She did from the very first, and though you’ll find the money and position will make a difference in some quarters, it never would have with her.”