“You told me your Daddy was the best doctor in the world, not the greatest detective,” Betsy said.
“He’s both!”
“He’s made me very happy,” Chloe declared softly. Her head had dropped to Aunt Marcia’s shoulder.
“No happier than I,” Aunt Marcia added. “Regardless of who your parents were, you are my girl and I love you. Now—no one can take you away from me.”
Aunt Marcia has suffered fears, too.
CHAPTER XXV
HOME AGAIN JIGGETY JIG
Sunday was a full day, but Mimi was glad when it was over. She shook hands and made curtsies off and on all day. Meeting other girls’ parents and sisters and brothers was fun but it was tiring. Then, too, it made her too impatient to see her own.
Sunday afternoon she slipped away quietly to say goodbye to her favorite places. She lingered under the big maple tree where she had studied on sunny days. She inspected the partially completed swimming pool as carefully as a contractor. Not next year, but some year, she would take swimming instructions here and she wanted it just so. She hoped Miss Bassett would be teaching advanced swimming when she returned. She must take another last look at the gym.
To her delight the door was unlocked and she could enter. No doubt some faculty member had been showing it to visitors. The big empty gymnasium was not lonely to Mimi. She loved it. Here she had known sorrow; but here, too, she had been happiest. Suppose she added all the hours of free time she had spent here practicing goals? Suppose she had fastened a pedometer on her ankle to record the miles she had dribbled down the floor?
Am I queer that I miss places as much or more than people, she wondered? She remembered how it hurt to say goodbye to the friendly trees at camp, the Lodge, the river, the hills. When she thought back about camp, it was these things she longed for.