And then they went to the agent again and the telephone.
“Guardy Lud” proved himself quite equal to the occasion by agreeing to come on at once and approve their choice, and promised to be there before evening.
“I knew he would,” said Leslie happily, as they seated themselves in the car again for the pleasant run to the college.
They found the dean in his office, and Allison was taken with him at once.
“He isn’t much like that musty little guy in the other college. He looked like a wet hen!” growled Allison in a low tone to his sister and aunt, while the dean was out in the hall talking to a student. “I like him, don’t you?” and Julia Cloud sat wondering what the boy’s standards could be that he could judge so suddenly and enthusiastically. Yet she had to admit herself that she liked this man, tall and grave with a pleasant twinkle hidden away in his wine-brown eyes and around the corners of his firm mouth. She felt satisfied that here was a man who would be both wise and just.
They made the rounds of the college buildings and campus with growing enthusiasm, and then drove back to the inn to lunch with hearty appetites.
“Let’s go down to the house, and measure things, and look around once more,” proposed Leslie. “Then we can come back and wait here for Guardy. We mustn’t be away when he arrives, for he’ll want to get everything fixed up and get away. I know him. Allison, did you get a time-table?”
Allison produced one from his coat-pocket, and they studied the trains, and decided that there was no 120 possibility of the arrival of their guardian until three o’clock, and probably not until five.
“That’s all right,” said Leslie. “Cloudy and I’ll stay here from three to five, and you can meet the trains; but first I want the dimensions of those rooms, so Cloudy and I can plan. We’ve got a whole lot to do before college opens, and we can’t spare a minute. O Cloudy! I’m so happy! Isn’t that house just a duck?”
They went to the village store, bought a foot-rule, a yardstick, and a tape-measure, and repaired to the house. Allison took the foot-rule by masculine right; Julia Cloud said she felt more at home with the tape-measure; and Leslie preferred the yardstick. With pencil and paper they went to work, making a diagram of each room, with spaces between windows and doors for furniture, taking it room by room.