“Well,” he replied cautiously, “it’s a matter of weeks rather than months, but I can hardly undertake to say precisely how long it will take.”
As Lois went to the room prepared for her the doctor gave her a word of commendation for her kindness to Miss Ambrose. “Your bandage had a professional touch,” he said.
“Thank you,” she responded, “you know I wish to study medicine.”
“So I’ve heard,” replied Dr. Brown, who had a slight acquaintance with Lois’ family, “although you understand, I suppose, that it’s a long and hard road, especially for a woman.”
“Oh, yes,” she said, less cheerfully, perhaps, than her wont. Indeed, as she sat in Miss Ambrose’s quaintly furnished spare room, the professional course for which she hoped seemed farther away than ever. With one last glance at her notes before she went to bed, she heard the clock strike twelve before she fell asleep. In the morning she woke early, and was again at her work, with a sigh for the text-book which she could not see until she reached Fay House, where there was a copy in the library. It was hardly seven when Maggie knocked on the door, to say that breakfast would be ready at eight, and that Miss Ambrose would be glad to see her at any time.
“You have been very kind indeed to stay with me, and you must promise to come to see me as soon as you can. I shall certainly be here for the next two or three weeks.” Miss Ambrose smiled faintly.
“Yes, it’s too bad.” The voice of Lois had the ring of true sympathy. “The next two or three weeks will be pretty busy for me, as all the mid-years come then, you know. But I shall drop in, in passing, for I shall be very anxious to see how you are getting along.”
“Thank you, it will please me so. There is so much that I wish to ask about the college. When I was young there were no colleges for girls, and my parents would not have let me go away from home. But I had a brother fitting for college, and by myself I studied just the same things that he did. How I envied him his chances! Ah! he didn’t half appreciate them.” Then Miss Ambrose paused, as if weighed down by sad memories. “Well, afterwards my mother tried to get permission for me to study at Harvard, or even to have examinations on subjects that I had studied at home. But it was useless. Nothing could be done about it, although we had relatives in the Faculty and many influential friends.”
“Did they approve of your wishing to go?”
“Well, not altogether. In fact, some of them thought me bold to talk about it. But—well, I’m glad that the girls of this generation have the chance that I longed for.”