“You hope to?”
Langdon flushed boyishly.
“This summer has made me hope,” he answered quietly.
Aunt Philomela rose. Out of a full heart Barnes silently thanked her.
“I suppose you two will practice to-night?” she asked her niece.
Barnes waited for the answer. Miss Van Patten turned to Carl.
“I’d like to,” he answered, “but I promised Dr. Merriweather to play to him after supper.”
Barnes no longer begrudged him the brook-trout. When shortly after Carl took his departure Barnes felt actually glad that he had been the humble means of furnishing him so good a supper.
“Let’s go out and see the after-glow,” he suggested as standing on the door step with Miss Van Patten, he saw Carl turn the corner, by the letter-box.
She was upon the point of hesitating when he led the way in so determined a manner that after throwing a shawl about her shoulders, she followed. He trampled a trail through the knee-deep grass to the summit in the rear of the house. Below them lay a sweep of undulating hills unbroken to the horizon line.