“Am I ‘It’ with you, Linda?” he asked soberly.
“Sure you are,” said Linda. “You’re the best friend I have.”
“Will you write to me when I go to college this fall?”
“Why, you couldn’t keep me from it,” said Linda. “I’ll have so many things to tell you. And when your first vacation comes we’ll make it a hummer.”
“I know Dad won’t let me come home for my holidays except for the midsummer ones,” said Donald soberly. “It would take most of the time there would be of the short holidays to travel back and forth.”
“You will have to go very carefully about getting a start,” said Linda, “and you should be careful to find the right kind of friends at the very start. Christmas and Thanksgiving boxes can always be sent on time to reach you. It won’t be so long for you as for us; and by the time you have Oka Sayye beaten to ravellings you will have such a ‘perfect habit’ that you will start right in with the beating idea. That should keep you fairly busy, because most of the men you come up against will be beaters themselves.”
“Yes, I know,” said Donald. “Are you going to start me to college with the idea that I have to keep up this beating habit? If I were to be one of fifty or a hundred, wouldn’t that be good enough?”
“Why, sure,” said Linda, “if you will be satisfied with having me like fifty or a hundred as well as I do you.”
“Oh, damn!” said Donald angrily. “Do I have to keep up this top-crust business all my days?”
Linda looked at him with a queer smile on her lips.