"Yes, but I am making up for lost time now. I shall soon have finished it."
"And then we shall lose you."
"I have had a delicious time here," said Jean. "But I must be in town again soon. The autumn is coming on, and I think I shall have a chance of doing some portraits during the winter."
Time slipped away, but when Jean came to leave Kingsford Farm, she felt she had made real friends there, and friends who would remain so.
"You must come back to us another summer," said Barbara. "Come to us in the spring-time. We have fields of daffodils and primroses; it is the sweetest time in the whole year to me."
"I have learnt a good deal from you," said Jean thoughtfully. "I never had my selfishness brought home to me before. I hope I shall never be so self-absorbed again."
She could not speak of the deeper lessons she had been learning. Not even to Miss Lorraine, in her letters, had she given the least hint of the great change that had slowly and gradually come into her soul.
But she had not been back many days in town, before Miss Lorraine noticed the difference in her.
And one Sunday evening coming home from church Jean said abruptly—
"Do you remember your talk to me, Miss Lorraine, before I went to Kingsford?"