“Last summer, when I was in Chicago for a few days. You came up to me in a hotel and shook hands with me. I thought it was some graduate of our university, till you told me that Mrs. Scott and the girls had gone up to Wisconsin and assumed that I knew about it.”
“Then it was you instead of Sidney!” laughed Mr. Scott. “I remember that I was puzzled, for Sidney was supposed to have left the city some time before.”
But here came two youths hurrying across through the crowd to them. “Hello, Hope. How do you do, Mr. Scott? Caroline, how you’ve grown! Isn’t that always the thing to say to returning children?” The taller of the two boys was shaking hands with Caroline, after this speech, and put an arm around Hope, as he waited to be introduced to her friend.
In a moment Shirley found herself in a handsome car, sitting behind with Hope, while the two young men sat in front, the older one driving skilfully through the traffic of Chicago. “Little did I think, Hope,” said Shirley, “when I was here last summer, or even last fall on the way to school, that at Christmastime I’d be back to visit with a dear girl like you.”
“I want you many more times, Shirley. I’m sorry that Madge had to go home, but after all, it’s nice to have you to ourselves. Some way, people get to loving you, Shirley, did you know that?”
“No I didn’t,” laughed Shirley. “I think that it’s ‘your imagination and a beautiful dream,’ as Auntie is fond of saying.”
“You did not know that I had such big brothers, did you? I told them all about you, though. I have one more, and no sisters at all.”
Shirley looked at the two young men in front of her, used to the ways of the city, capable, interesting. Mac, who was driving, looked not in the least like Hope, though he had her serious look when his face was in repose, as now. Good, clear features marked the profile that Shirley saw. His face was rather thin and the hands on the wheel were well-shaped. Ted, the other brother, was not as tall as Mac, but looked as old; his eyes and the shape of his face were like Hope.
“They look as if they were the same age, don’t they?” asked Hope. “Ted is not quite a year older than I am, and Mac is just a year older than Ted. We were all little together and my, how Mother ever stood our playing and fussing I don’t know. Kenneth is fourteen, only three years younger than I am, but he is somewhat spoiled as the ‘baby’ of the family.”
It was pleasant to be welcomed into the beautiful home of the Hollands. Shirley shared Hope’s room and thought it “lovely;” but Hope said that they were selling the house soon and would move into a suburb farther out.