“It was a gaudy blonde when I left; I don’t know who it will be when I get back.”
Ellen laughed. “He must be rather a fickle individual.”
“He might be called so in his present development, but I think he’d stick, given the proper lure. I’m built on different lines; when I fall I fall hard and stay right there forever and aye. There’s one thing, Cronette, that I’ve been saving to tell you, and that is I have bought the haunted house; got it for next to nothing, the owners were that glad to get rid of it.”
“Oh, R—Cronine, you have really bought it?”
“Certain sure, the whole outfit,—studio, trees, garden, all the whole thing, and I’m going to change the name of ‘haunted house.’”
“To what?”
“That depends upon you.”
“Upon me?”
Reed nodded. “I remember last summer that you said you would never leave your cousin while she needed you. She will stop needing you if she goes to her brother, and so what it’s been as hard as the mischief to keep from saying I’m going to say. Don’t you think it would be nice if we could always spend our summers up there on little Minor’s Island, you, and fiddle and I? Then I could change the name to Happy House. I don’t say that I hadn’t admired other girls before I saw you, but since that first evening at Uncle Pete’s I knew there never would be any other girl for me. I was bowled over then and there for keeps. Don’t you like me a right smart lot, Cronette? Bless that darling little name that is all ours, and that no one else uses. Cronette Marshall, how’s that for a name?”
“Oh, Reed, you are so ridiculous,” answered Ellen, half laughing, half crying.