“I'm afraid we've missed him,” she said; “though it's very strange, because he never goes anywhere else, but just in this direction. I think we may as well give up the search. But I'm a little tired, and would you mind sitting down and resting for a moment before turning back?”
“I should like nothing better; only, I must warn you that I haven't the remotest notion how we are to find our way out of here. The paths we have taken have been so crooked, I've entirely lost my reckoning.”
“Ah, but I—I know the park by heart. I could find my way anywhere in it, blindfold, I think.”
“Indeed? How did you get so well acquainted?”
“Oh, we've lived within a stone's throw of it all my life. When I was a little girl I used to play here. Then I had to cross it twice a day, when I went to the Normal College. And since then I've made a practice of taking long walks here every afternoon. There's scarcely a tree or stone that I'm not familiar with; and I've discovered lots of delightful little places—nooks and corners—that nobody else suspects the existence of. Sometime I'd like to show you some of them. They'd be splendid to paint.”
By this time they were seated.
“Oh, thank you,” said Elias, “that will be charming. And so, you went to the Normal College?”
“Yes; I graduated there last spring.”
“Graduated! Why, I shouldn't have thought you were old enough!”
“How old do you think I am?”