“It seems to me,” said Linda, on the train going home, “that Marian will get more out of life, she will love deeper, she will work harder, she will climb higher in her profession than she would have done if she had married John. It is difficult sometimes, when things are happening, to realize that they are for the best, but I really believe this thing has been for the level best. I think Marian is going to be a bigger woman in San Francisco than she ever would have been in Lilac Valley. With that thought I must reconcile myself.”
“And what about John?” asked Peter. “Is he going to be a bigger man with Eileen than he would have been with Marian?”
“No,” said Linda, “he is not. He didn’t do right and he’ll have penalty to pay. Eileen is developing into a lovable and truly beautiful woman, but she has not the intellect, nor the education, nor the impulse to stimulate a man’s mental processes and make him outdo himself the way Marian will. John will probably never know it, but he will have to do his own stimulating; he will have to vision life for himself. He will have to find his high hill and climb it with Eileen riding securely on his shoulders. It isn’t really the pleasantest thing in the world, it isn’t truly the thing I wanted to do this summer—helping them out—but it has seemed to be the work at hand, the thing Daddy probably would have wanted me to do, so it’s up to me to do all I can for them, just as I did all I could for Donald. One thing I shall always be delighted about. With my own ears I heard the pronouncement: Donald had the Jap beaten; he was at the head of his class before Oka Sayye was eliminated. The Jap knew it. His only chance lay in getting rid of his rival. Donald can take the excellent record he has made in this race to start on this fall when he commences another battle against some other man’s brain for top honours in his college.”
“Will he start with the idea that he wants to be an honour man?”
Linda laughed outright.
“I think,” she said, “his idea was that if he were one of fifty or one hundred leading men it would be sufficient, but I insisted that if he wanted to be first with me, he would have to be first in his school work.”
“I see,” said Peter. “Linda, have you definitely decided that when you come to your home-making hour, Donald is the man with whom you want to spend the remainder of your life?”
“Oh, good gracious!” said Linda. “Who’s talking about ‘homes’ and ‘spending the remainder of lives’? Donald and I are school friends, and we are good companions. You’re as bad as Eileen. She’s always trying to suggest things that nobody else ever thought of, and now Katy’s beginning it too.”
“Sap-heads, all!” said Peter. “Well, allow me to congratulate you on having given Donald his spurs. I think it’s a very fine thing for him to start to college with the honour idea in his head. What about your Saturday excursions?”
“They have died an unnatural death,” said Linda. “Don and I fought for them, but the Judge and Mrs. Whiting and Mary Louise were terrified for fear a bone might slip in Don’s foot, or some revengeful friend or relative of Oka Sayye lie in wait for us. They won’t hear of our going any more. I go every Saturday and take Donald for a very careful drive over a smooth road with the Bear-cat cursing our rate of speed all the way. All the fun’s spoiled for all three of us.”