“I think Nora too pretty to drop. Besides, don’t you really think a name is a part of one’s self and ought to be loved and respected?”
“That’s just it. I want to—that is, if you don’t mind, I want to be the self I planned, not this one I didn’t have anything to say about. It’s just like religion. When we grow up big as I am, we ought to be allowed to choose.” Her manner was even more babyish than her appearance.
“Big as I am!” Jerry repeated this to a rosebush.
As a matter of fact she was not much bigger than a child of eight years might be, but she claimed a few more birthdays and she looked about as substantial as a wind flower. Her eyes were blue, her hair light and fluffy, and she wore such a tiny white slip of a dress, socks and sandals and a white lace hat! Grown up? She looked just like an old-fashioned baby.
“Then, shall I be Bobbs?” asked Nora a moment later, with hope in her voice.
“Ye-e-s, and if—the auntie wants to soften it she can call you Babette,” ventured Jerry. “And now, if the christenings are over, suppose we go inside and freshen up. Come along Bob, you are going to be my helper now, aren’t you?” Jerry’s eyes twinkled with his voice. He was, plainly, enjoying himself.
“I’d love to help—especially with outdoor work,” replied the girl. “And you measure land, don’t you?” she asked.
“Yes, that’s about it. In other words I’m a surveyor,” explained Jerry.
“And Aunt Elizabeth helps. Isn’t that lovely? We won’t, any of us, have old pesky house work to think about. I haven’t ever dreamed a dream, not a single one, about housekeeping. Some one always does that for me, or I just don’t think about it at all and it’s all done beautifully,” boasted Nora. “I love your place. It’s so romantic,” she expanded her arms and fluffy little skirt to fill the big chair. “I feel, somehow, everything is going to come true now.” Relief toned this statement while she looked wistfully out of blue eyes, and any one might have easily guessed that something very dear was included in that word “everything.”
The young woman, who was threatened with being made over into an old Aunt Elizabeth with laces and cameos to boot, gazed intently at the small personality. She realized it was a personality, a little dreamer, a big romancer, and a very weird sample of the modern girl, self-trained.