Once more the original company gathered together at Bellingly for the summer. Ruth was overjoyed to see Lisa again, but the little girl was outgrowing her belief in fairies, and Callie was fading into a creature of the past. Patience and Amber still held their places in the child’s affection, but such a very sedate cat now objected to being dressed up as a fairy prince, and, moreover, was now seldom called upon to take such a character, while Patience sometimes sat for a whole day staring ahead of her without once changing her point of vision. The reason of this was that Ruth had acquired such a love of reading that she devoured eagerly anything she could lay her hands upon,—from works on theology to the lightest of light magazines.
Mr. Danforth spent his infrequent holidays with these friends, and it amused Lisa to see Persis’s interest in the long galley-proofs he brought her and Mr. Danforth’s interest in the girl herself.
He and Lisa were now on excellent terms. Had she but known it, the pretty girl was much more attractive to the young man in her present happy, gracious humor, when she demanded nothing and was at peace with every one. They had pleasant talks together when Persis was off on what she called her metalsome steed with her “brother Basil.” Quite as often it was Annis who was Basil’s companion, while Persis and “Mr. Dan” were still discussing the work of the paper. Then Lisa, with eyes made wise by her new experiences, saw possibilities which probably none of the others discerned. Lisa liked much to be with her grandmother these days. To the dear old lady she could talk of her sailor-boy and be sure of an interested and sympathetic listener.
“To think of Persis being so grown up! eighteen! think of it, grandma,” she said one day. “I can hardly realize it; and Annis a young lady, too. Don’t you think Annis likes Basil very much?”
“Does she? I had not observed it.”
Lisa laughed. “Oh, grandma, I suppose I am looking for romances on every side. I see that Mr. Danforth likes Persis more than she suspects, and that Annis always looks very happy when she is with Basil,—shy little Annis; and that Persis, dear old Tommy——”
“What of her?” asked Mrs. Estabrook, a trifle anxiously.
“She is heart free. I don’t believe her heart has waked up yet. She finds in Mr. Danforth a good comrade; she is as free from consciousness and is as spontaneous as need be in his company, and the same with Basil, although sometimes I have seen her watch Annis and Basil rather closely. Basil, like Persis, doesn’t think about the girls except in the light of comrades.”
“Well, my dear, there is plenty of time to settle all those questions. Probably each one will make some very different selection, eventually. I know Persis has no romantic notions, and I think while she is a college student she will not bother her head over any such matters, if she ever does.”
“‘She is a woman, and therefore to be wooed,’” quoted Lisa.