“Oh, mamma!” expostulated Lisa.
“Yes,” said Mrs. Holmes, decidedly. “You must remember that neither of your parents has as yet seen your sailor lad, and the engagement is only conditional until we do see him, and must not be announced. You are too young to think of nest-making yet, the pair of you.”
“Yes, my Nancy Lee,” interposed Persis; “take the advice of your wise sister and ‘bide a wee.’ You won’t find me so ready to leave you, mammy.” And Persis patted her mother’s face with her pretty soft hand.
“What about college?”
“Oh, college is different; that is just for a time. I’ll go just to make you glad to have me back again, and you’ll be so glad you’ll want to keep me always. It does seem a shame to break up the constellation, as Ned Carew calls us. I asked him which one we represented, and he had some dim idea of meaning the Pleiades, I think, until I reminded him that we are not seven; and then he said, ‘Ah, you’re those bright stars in a row. What d’ye call ’em? Orion’s belt.’ Now you know where we belong, girls.”
“That sounds like Ned. How is my late adorer, by the way?” asked Lisa.
“He is well. In your absence he has been devoting himself to Audrey, and in consequence the relations are somewhat strained between the Pigeon and the Milesian.”
“‘Wha’ fo’?’ as Prue says,” inquired Lisa.
“Because Pidgy does not admire the Grasshopper, and Audrey is quite grown up nowadays. She is quite a society lady, while Melly is only a school-girl yet; so you see, like the conundrum, Why does a duck go in the water? it’s for divers reasons.”
“What about the other girls? How is Connie?”