Christine was ready with a roaring fire, hot coffee and dry clothes for her sister. “Bad, naughty child,” she exclaimed, “why did you stay so long, and why did you go off no better protected? You might have perished with cold if you had been alone. Come in and get warm and then I will show you what Neal has brought me.”
“I am not so very cold,” declared Alison. “We had a good fire at the cabin and I was well wrapped up when we started, and then we came around the longer way so we did not face the wind.”
“The longest way round is the shortest way home,” sang Christine, who seemed in a merry mood. “Isn’t it good to see Neal again? John is so glad he is back. For all one can say, no one else is quite so companionable to John. He says that though Neal is always ready for a frolic and is no prig, he never forgets that he is a gentleman and he never disgraces himself by using bad language and by carousing in the dreadful way some of his comrades-in-arms did. Yet he always had their respect and confidence.”
“I know all that,” replied Alison, her eyes shining.
“Come up and I will show you my present,” said Christine, “such a rare piece as it is. I’ll wager mine is the best. Has Neal told what he has brought you?”
Alison was obliged to confess that he had not, but declared that she knew it was finer than her sister’s.
The two men were out putting up the horses while the girls were up-stairs. The girls could see them as they tramped back through the slashing rain. Alison watched their approach from the little window of her room. “When you were my age did you know you were in love with Steve?” she asked her sister suddenly.
“I always knew it,” said Christine quietly. “I can’t remember the time when I didn’t. Here, Allie, put on this dry skirt; you will take cold if you wear that wet one any longer.”
“What time did Neal get here?” asked Alison, mechanically taking the skirt.
“Quite early. He stayed to dinner and then nothing would do but he must go in search of you. Where did he overtake you?”