She was silent for fully two minutes, then burst out, “I say, wasn’t it great, what Mort Elwell said about Stella Saxon’s picture?” She chuckled at the remembrance, then added: “By the way, did it occur to you that he wasn’t particularly enthusiastic over the idea of our going to grandfather’s? My, but I wish we could go.”
“I don’t know what difference our plans make to him,” said Esther, in a tone which indicated that her sleepiness had not reached an acute stage.
“Oh, they make plenty of difference to him; at least yours do,” said Kate, sagely.
“Well, he might spare himself the trouble,” said Esther. “I must say I think Morton Elwell takes too much for granted, lately.”
Kate stopped braiding her hair and stared at her sister. “I don’t know what he takes for granted, except that old friends don’t change,” she said. She continued to stare for a minute, then remarked slowly: “I know what ails you, Esther. You want to have a lot of romance and all that sort of thing. For my part I never could see that romance amounted to anything but getting all mixed up and having a lot of trouble.” And having delivered herself of this she apparently resigned herself to her own reflections.
On the porch, still sitting in the evening darkness, Mrs. Northmore was saying to her husband at that moment: “Philip, what do you say to letting the girls go to New England? We’ve talked about it a good deal; why not settle on it? Now that the wheat has turned out so well, couldn’t we afford it?”
“Why, I think ’twould be an excellent plan, Lucia,” said the doctor, cordially. “I’ve thought so all along, but I was under the impression that you wanted the wheat money to go another way.”
She gave a little sigh. “Yes,” she said, “I did want to reduce that mortgage, but some things can wait better than others. It would do the girls good to go, and I believe Esther really needs a change.”
“You think the child is not well?” queried the doctor, with a note of surprise in his voice.
“Oh, not ill,” said Mrs. Northmore, quickly, “but”—she hesitated a moment, “she is rather restless and inclined to be a little morbid and moody. It might be worth a good deal to her to have a change of scene, and get some new ideas.”