“Why, Persis!” reproved her mother. “Don’t say such things. I do not want you to have such notions about these boys. You are to be sisters and brothers together, friends by selection. Now, don’t let me hear any such talk again. Go along, all of you; I have letters to write.” And the girls proceeded to gather up their books.
“I do wish people wouldn’t get ill, so that mothers must send their boys where they’re not wanted,” grumbled Persis to Lisa, when they had reached the seclusion of their own room.
“Oh, but you know it isn’t as if they had done that. You know papa himself suggested to Mrs. Phillips last summer that if the boys were to go to college it would be a good thing to send them to the Latin school this year. They talked it all over. Mamma told me so.”
“Well, it amounts to the same thing. We don’t want them; at least I don’t, whatever the rest of you may like.”
“But you know their board will be an item.”
“I hadn’t thought of that. Well, I suppose we are not such bloated bondholders but what a little windfall like that counts nowadays when times are hard. All the same, I wish they didn’t have to be here.”
“Oh, I don’t believe they will be in the way,” said Lisa. “They’ll be rather handy to send on errands and to go with us to parties and things.”
“Parties and things! How many do we attend, pray? You know mamma never allows us to go to night affairs except on the rarest occasions. Boys are such teases. They are always playing tricks on you and making personal remarks about your looks and catching up your words. I know how Margie Bancroft’s brothers do. I shall feel uncomfortable the whole winter long. They’ll be strewing the house from one end to the other with old balls and scrubby-looking caps and such things. Why, Margie told me the other day that she found the bath-tub half-full of water-snakes and turtles and the goodness knows what.”
“Oh, Persis!” exclaimed Lisa, now quite alarmed. “Do you really mean it? I should have been terrified to death.”
“Well, it’s what you may expect,” returned Persis. And she left her sister in quite a perturbed condition. Nevertheless, it must be confessed that Lisa made an unusually careful toilet that evening, and Mellicent assumed her most languishing air, hoping that she looked pale and interesting. Persis appeared at the table quite as usual, having almost forgotten the presence of these prospective disturbers of her peace. It was an awkward moment for the five young people, and, although Mrs. Holmes’s tact and sweetness helped them through the worst of it, all felt a sense of relief when the dinner-hour was over.