“So now,” continued Miss Howard, “I am going to ask you to help my outgoing from this happy home to be a pleasant one, by being my maid of honor when the time comes; will you, dear?”
“You want me to be the maid of honor, Miss Howard? You don’t truly mean it? There are so many other girls whom you have known so much longer, and whom you must love better than you do me; although I don’t believe they can love you any better than I do,” said Toinette, naively.
“That is just it, dear. I do love them all, and am sure that they are very fond of me. But in your case it is just a little different. All these girls have pleasant homes, and many loved ones in them who plan for their happiness, and to whom they will go directly vacation begins. For many years you, like myself, have had no home but the one a school offered, and which, unlike mine, was sometimes not as happy a home as it might have been, I fear. So, you see, we have, in one way, had a bond of sympathy between us even before we knew it to be so. And now we have still another, for when we leave here in June we shall each go to our own dear home; you to one your father shall make for you, I to the one my husband will provide for me.”
A soft, pretty color had crept over Miss Howard’s face as she spoke, and a very tender look came into her beautiful eyes. Truly, she was carrying something very sweet and holy to the one who was to bear that name.
“So we shall step out into the new life together, shall we not, Toinette, and each will be the sweeter for our having done so?” asked Miss Howard.
“It is too lovely even to think about, Miss Howard. I don’t know how to make you understand how proud and happy it makes me to think that you chose me from among all the others, and I hope they will not feel that you should not have done so. Do you think they will mind?”
“On the contrary, they are delighted with my choice, for I told them my reasons, as I have told them to you, and they see it in the same light that I see it.”
“Then I shall be the happiest girl in Montcliff,” cried Toinette.
“No, next to the happiest,” said Miss Howard, laughing softly.
“Well, I shall be the happiest in my way, and you in yours,” and Toinette wagged her head as though it would be of no use for Miss Howard to try to make her concede that point.