“Mercy on us!” Jonas raised a startled arm. He poked the duster full into Jerry’s face, to Marjorie’s noisy delight.
“Ker-choo! I’m not the hall rack, Jonas, and I don’t think I resemble the newel post, either,” Jerry reproved.
“No, you don’t quite look like either of ’em,” Jonas agreed, chuckling. “Excuse me for dusting you,” taking a leaf from Jerry’s own book of etiquette he slyly added, “and blame yourself.”
“Fine, Jonas, you’re learning,” Jerry heartily encouraged.
The frolicsome pair lingered in the hall for a little exchanging of merry repartee with Jonas. He now looked forward to such lively encounters as a part of his day’s program.
At breakfast that morning Mrs. Dean’s letter formed the main topic of conversation. Marjorie was bubbling over with happiness at the highly agreeable way in which her affairs had worked out.
“I’m the person fortune has singled out for attention,” Miss Susanna crisply asserted. “All I need do is stay quietly at home and watch my friends gravitate to the Arms. Last Easter you girls all went away from Hamilton and left poor Susanna without a single playmate. This year Susanna has them all, and with one more to come from another land.”
“It’s wonderful to know that Captain will soon be here.” Marjorie’s voice was full of tender expectation. “Her presence will furnish me with oceans of fresh literary impetus. I shall need it for ‘Realization,’ the second part of the biography. It will be a good deal longer than the first part. I wish they might have been of equal length.”
“The inspiration to build Hamilton College was his life. At least he made it that,” Miss Susanna said rather absently. She appeared to be immersed in thought far remote from her spoken words.
“That’s precisely why the first part of the biography will be so much shorter than the second,” Marjorie cried, her forehead puckering in faint disapproval. “His very interesting years in China, the building of Hamilton, all his work belongs in ‘Realization.’ He had begun to work, then, you see, entirely toward realizing his splendid plans. I’d love to have more data about his youth. There is a great deal of the China data which would have been lost if you hadn’t written down the stories he told you of his life in the Orient,” she nodded gratefully to Miss Susanna.