Agatha smiled. “Can a photograph show the clean, sanguine temperament of a man, his impulsive generosity, and cheerful optimism?”
Miss Rawlinson rose, and critically surveyed the photograph on the mantel.
“I don’t want to be discouraging, but after studying that one I’m compelled to admit that it can’t. No doubt it’s the artist’s fault, but I’m willing to admit that a young girl would be rather apt to credit a man with a face like that with qualities he didn’t possess.” She sat down again with a thoughtful expression. “The fact is, you set him up on a pedestal and burned incense to him when you were not old enough to know any better, and when he came home for a few weeks four years ago you promised to marry him. Now it seems he’s ready at last, and wants you to go out to the new country. Perhaps it doesn’t affect the question, but if I’d promised to marry a man in Canada he’d certainly have to come for me. Isn’t there a certain risk in the thing?”
“A risk?”
Winifred nodded. “Yes,” she said, “rather a serious one. Four years is a long time, and the man may have changed. In a new country where life is so different, it must be a thing they’re rather apt to do.”
A faint, half-compassionate, half-tolerant smile crept into Agatha’s eyes. The mere idea that the sunny-tempered, brilliant young man to whom she had given her heart could have changed or degenerated in any way seemed absurd to her. Winifred, however, went on again.
“There’s another point,” she said. “If he’s still the same, which isn’t likely, there has certainly been a change in you. You have learned to see things more clearly, and have acquired a different standard from the one you had then. One can’t help growing, and as one grows one looks for more. One is no longer pleased with the same things; it’s inevitable.”
She broke off for a moment, and her voice became gentler.
“Well,” she added, “I’ve done my duty in trying to point this out to you, and now there’s only another thing to say: since you’re clearly bent on going, I’m going with you.”
Agatha looked astonished, but there was a suggestion of relief in her expression, for the two had been firm friends and had faced a good deal together.