[CHAPTER XI]
PRETTY POLLY PERKINS
"AND the summer is over. Now back again to hard work," sighed Janet as she sat down wearily after having established her belongings in their accustomed places. "After all, Ted, I am glad to be back in Hopper Hall. I verily believe I should be homesick in a new place. I actually have an affection for these familiar rooms."
"Minus the fireplace?" asked Edna.
"Yes, I even forego the fireplace for the sake of the hominess of it all. Next year, though, we certainly must try another place, for we shall not care so much, knowing that we can go home at the end of it. We can get Juliet Fuller's rooms then, if we want them. With Cordelia and Lee here, and so many well-known faces about us, I should have felt like a renegade to have deserted."
"That is exactly the way I felt," returned Edna. "I would have gone wherever you did, of course, Janet; but I am really better satisfied here. I like to be acquainted with the hooks in my closet, and to know just which side of the second drawer of my bureau to jerk when I open it. We had a good summer, didn't we?"
Janet leaned her arms on the table and looked thoughtfully out of the window. "Great," she responded. "I don't suppose there will ever be just such another."
"I don't see why not," returned Edna. "We all promised to meet again in the same place next year, and we can do the same things over again."
"I have noticed," said Janet, "that there never is any second time. Things never are exactly the same twice. Something prevents; one cannot tell precisely what, but even with the same people and the same place, something creeps in to change it all. There never is any going back. One can't repeat experiences. There must be something different."
"Oh, most potent, grave, and reverend junior, I don't see why that is an inevitable rule."