“But Europe isn’t on the other side of it Aunt Polly, and besides I’ve been there twice already you know, and I didn’t fall off the earth either time.”
“No, you were lucky, and maybe you’ll be lucky this time. Anyhow you have all made up your minds and I’ll interpose no objections.”
It was by no means so easy to win Dorothy’s consent to the proposed journey.
“I ought not to run away from my duty,” she said, in objection to a proposal which opened otherwise delightful prospects to her mind.
“But it’s your duty to go, child,” Edmonia answered. “You need the trip and all the education it will give you. What is there for you to do here, anyhow?”
“Why, Cousin Arthur might need me! You know he never tells lies, and he says I have really helped him to save people’s lives in this fever time.”
“But that is all over now and it won’t occur again. Arthur has taken care of that by burning the old quarters and building new ones in a wholesome place. By the way, Dorothy, you’ll be glad to know that his example is already having its influence. Brother has decided to build new quarters for our servants at a spot which Arthur has selected as the best one for the purpose on the plantation. Anyhow there’ll be no further fever outbreaks at Wyanoke or at Pocahontas, now that Arthur is master there also.”
“But he might need me in other ways,” answered the persistently reluctant Dorothy. “And besides he is teaching me chemistry and other scientific things that will make me useful in life. No, I can’t go away now.”
“But, you absurd child,” answered Edmonia, “there will be plenty of time to learn all that when you come back. You are ridiculously young yet. You won’t be seventeen till March, and you know a great deal more about science than Arthur did at your age. Besides this is his plan for you, not mine. He wants you to learn the things this trip will teach you, a great deal more than he wants you to learn chemistry and that sort of thing. He knows what you need in the way of education, and it is at his suggestion that I’m going to take you North and to Europe. He appreciates your abilities as you never will, and it is his earnest wish that you shall make this trip as a part of your education.”
“Very well,” answered Dorothy. “I’ll ask him if he wants me to go, and if he says yes, I’ll go. Of course it will be delightful to see great cities and the ocean and Pompeii and pictures and all the rest of it. But a woman mustn’t think of enjoyment alone. That’s the way women become bad. My father often told me so, and I don’t want to be bad.”