"Where will you make your home, I mean? What will you do, if I may ask?" he replied.

"I don't know, but I suppose Uncle Job will want to send me off to school, as he talked before," I answered, thinking of it now for the first time.

"That would be greatly to your advantage," Mrs. Hayward exclaimed, pleased at the idea.

"Yes, I suppose so; but I don't fancy it now any more than I did at first."

"Why not?" Mr. Hayward asked, surprised.

"Because I don't want to leave Appletop," I answered, looking toward Mrs. Hayward, who knew of my love for Constance.

"Yet you have been away all summer," he replied.

"I know, but I could come back when I wanted to, and so it was not like being away."

"That made a difference, to be sure; but you will go if he wants you to?"

"No; it's too much to ask," I answered, making up my mind.