“Is that true?” returned Kitty, “We girls all thought he was too dignified to recognize a joke when he met one.”
“Dignified! I wish you could have seen him last summer,” replied Persis. And then, being called by Mrs. Dixon, she returned to her special party of friends, who were by this time ready to take supper. Great fun they had over it, getting once in a while so uproarious that Mrs. Dixon had to remind them that they were in a public place, and must not make themselves conspicuous by such loud laughter.
“I know you are extremely funny and witty, you children,” she said, “but moderate your transports, if you please. It isn’t quite like ladies and gentlemen to make yourselves the centre of attraction in a place of this kind.”
“We know it, Aunt Agnes,” said Basil, “but Walter should have been better trained at home, for he is the ringleader of this nonsense.”
“You saucy boy,” returned Mrs. Dixon, laughing; “I am perfectly aware that Walter is at the head of it, but I’d like any one to curb his wit when he gets started, and if the rest of you don’t stop your hilarity he will disgrace his mother.”
“Then we’ll be good, for your sake,” returned Basil, and the mirth subsided somewhat.
The long porch of the Inn faced a grassy slope, below which ran a winding river. Lisa stood in one corner of the porch, having escaped from the others, who were established at the other end of the building and were continuing their nonsense.
The spring was still too young for the trees to show much leafage, but there was the thrill of expectancy perceptible in the waiting world. One could imagine it already passing through each fibre and rootlet hidden by the brown earth. There was a spring-like odor in the air which hinted of bursting buds and overturned sods. That vague fulness of heart which the season brings to young people and lovers of nature Lisa felt overpower her, and when Mr. Danforth joined her she met his first question with a sweet seriousness.
“Of what were you thinking, off here by yourself?” he asked.
“I was thinking of many things. One was this waiting world, and another was your mother. I only heard of her illness a day or two ago. I remembered your saying that a mother is the best friend one has, and I was hoping she was out of danger.”