“Then tell her all about Sidney, won’t you now, Dick, since you have seen her. Tell her all about what happened from the first and get her interested. I will write and refer to it, but it would take so long to write it all now.”
“All right, Shirley. But why not wait until you come home, since you have waited this long?”
“Something might happen. I’d like to have Aunt Anne know about it.”
“You are very mysterious, Shirley. I can’t imagine what could happen; but, as you say. I don’t even see what difference it would make if Sidney Thorne were your twin.”
“You can’t? Well, maybe it wouldn’t make any. I’m sorry, Dick, to see you go. It has been like home to have you here. I shall be quite ready to go home and stay with Aunt Anne till Father and Mother come back.”
But Shirley did not know that she would not spend the summer with Aunt Anne.
CHAPTER XIX.
ASSURANCES.
The excitement of the “Prom” over, Shirley Harcourt and her friends turned their attention to the usual preparation for examinations and the Commencement exercises not far away. Like most schools of the sort, Westlake would have graceful outdoor pageants. Both Shirley and Sidney were in the senior play, which was a good thing for them. There was little time for anything but lessons, practising and constant association with their friends.
At last Shirley heard from her mother, relative to her question. She did not know how anxious she had been until she felt the relief that came with the reading.
“Yes, dear,” wrote Mrs. Harcourt, “you are certainly my own little girl ‘by borning.’ I am sorry that you have had this long wait for a reply, but I hope that this thought was only a fancy and not a worry. No, I have not received the first letter you mention. I am very much interested in this other girl, so like you. Tell me more about her. When and where was she born and on what date? Your father wants to know, too. O Shirley, you have no idea what this trip means to him. In spite of his hard work, he looks ten years younger, feels like a boy, he says, and knows that this will mean everything professionally.”