“Sh! Footsteps approach!” Dicky held up a dripping finger.
Delia, the maid, was at the door. “Is Miss Barbara Wente here? There’s a young gentleman in the library to see her, and Mrs. Martin said that she could go down without a chaperone.”
“Oh! ho! ho! Babs has a beau!” Betsy began to tease when Delia had gone, but Barbara, crimson of cheek, had darted to her own room, to tidy up.
A very solemn-faced lad in the blue and gold uniform of Drexel Academy awaited Barbara in the library of Vine Haven Seminary.
“Benjy,” the girl hurried forward with hands outstretched, “what has happened? You look—is it sad? Is your mother no better?”
The lad had risen when Babs entered. When they were seated he said, “I fear not. My mother has not been well for months and Harry writes that unless she is better soon he will send for me, as Mums so often talks of how happy she will be when this term is over and I can return home.” Then, as he glanced out of the window and saw that snow was beginning to fall, he added, almost wistfully, “Spring seems a long way off, doesn’t it?”
“But it isn’t Benjy. Tomorrow will be the first day of March. This is probably to be the last snowstorm, and then, you know, after a few days of sun and rain, how soon the leaves and flowers appear. Strength seems to come with the spring, so please don’t worry more than you can help.”
The boy looked up brightly. “I knew seeing you would make me feel better. I wanted to come over last week when I first had the letter from Harry, but I couldn’t. We were so busy over at Drexel. Even today I had little hope of coming until Dean Craig asked if one of the boys wished to drive with him to Vine Haven. We came over in his own private cutter with that thoroughbred horse that fairly flew.”
Barbara looked around curiously. “Is Dean Craig here? I haven’t seen him.”
“Oh, no, he isn’t in the seminary. He let me out and then drove down to the cabin in the Pine Grove. He is interested in the Manuscript Magazine that your Miss Torrence planned and he came to see about starting some such thing in our English class.” Then he smiled in his frank boyish way. “Maybe the Dean is a bit interested in Miss Torrence herself. Is she young and attractive?”