“Time enough,” returned grandma. “Let her springtime last as long as possible. I should not disturb her serenity by suggesting possibilities, Lisa.”
“That’s just why I am telling you. I must talk over my little romances to you, grandma. I think I should prefer Basil for a brother. There is something very lovable about Basil; but you should see my Richard.”
Grandma smiled indulgently, but she sighed as she watched Persis come up the lane with Basil and Annis. There was, however, no need of anxiety in Persis’s direction. Her eager young mind craved knowledge. Of love she felt she had no lack, so content was she in the affection of her friends and her family, affection to which she responded with all the warmth of her ardent nature. Her dreams held visions of college balls; of days spent in digging for the nuggets of learning; of whys answered and wherefores satisfied; and her serious intent was visible in the lack of coquetry with which she received attention, and in the trend of her girlish enthusiasms. She liked companionship which could yield her pleasant mental stimulus, but she had a lofty scorn for triflers, even though she did enjoy nonsense in a most hearty way.
“Persis’s intellect far outstrips mine,” Lisa acknowledged, reluctantly. “She is so thorough and so original. I was never anything but a copyist.”
And so the golden summer drifted away, bringing them, at its close, all together again under the home roof, only to be separated. When September’s last days came they saw Persis ready to take a new flight. It was hard to be the first to say good-bye, and but for the warm welcome which met her in Mrs. Brown’s cosey little home, it would have been a very homesick girl who spent her first night within sight of the college walls.
The first of November found the house deserted, shutters barred, and doors bolted. It looked very lonely to Porter and Basil as they passed it each day on their way to college. But they heard after a time of the safe arrival of the voyagers across the ocean, of the eager diligence with which Persis was taking up her new work, nearer home, of Mrs. Estabrook’s interest in the doings of the college community, and of Annis’s happiness in having her dearest friend with her.
“We’ll see them all next summer, Port,” said Basil, “but I do miss them every one.”
“And I, too,” returned Porter. “They’ve been awfully good to us, Baz, and we mustn’t go back on them, even if they’re not here to keep us up to time.”
Basil looked down with pride at the tall, manly boy striding along at his side. “I believe Port is going to turn out all right,” he thought. “He needed Mr. Dan, as well as the others, to take him in tow.” But it was not all Mr. Dan, nor even the others, who had been of most use to Porter, for the unswerving example of his elder brother had been his best guide.
Afar under unchanging blue skies Lisa dreamed of wedding-bells, and Mellicent drew in strength with each breath of balmy air, so different from the biting winds which Persis faced with glowing cheeks as each day she took her wintry way through the streets of the dignified old town where her college stood.