“Won’t it be a lark?” said Nan. “Poor old dear! Imagine living all your life away from Virginia when you were born there.” She spoke with such fervency that Miss Helen laughed.
“You are the most loyal girl, Nan. You lead us to suppose that there is but one state worth while and that it is our own.”
“Nan is a true Virginian,” said Mrs. Corner. “She probably will admit that there are advantages elsewhere, but that preëminent above all other spots is her native state. She feels a little sorry, I think, for those who were not born in the Old Dominion.”
“I believe I do,” Nan acknowledged thoughtfully.
“Rather conservative and provincial, Nan,” warned Miss Helen. “You’ll have to learn to be more cosmopolitan than that, else we shall have to keep you traveling till you do see that each country, each state or city has its own attractions and can make some claim over the rest. All are not entirely good.”
“Munich came pretty near it,” said Nan with a thought to the charming German city where they had spent six months.
“You are making progress if you can admit that much and yield it claims over Virginia.”
“It has different attractions, of course, but——”
“Exactly. That is what I have been saying. No place on earth has everything, but to return to Cousin Maria. Shall you all be ready to take an early train? And, Mary, do rack your brain for reminiscences for the entertainment of Cousin Maria. I am sure she will want to know all about every Tom, Dick and Harry who was ever related to her in the remotest degree.”
“We’ll be ready, won’t we?” Nan turned to Mary Lee who promised that she would for one, then scenting a romance she said: