“No, I think not. Let her sleep in peace. I wouldn’t tell her until after breakfast to-morrow.”
Ethel intended to act in accordance with that advice, but on going to her own room found Nan there standing with her eyes fastened upon the trunk her sister had been packing.
“Why, what’s this trunk doing here?” she asked. “Are we going away, sister? Oh, I hope it’s to visit at Mr. Keith’s again, though I didn’t suppose we’d be going there so early in the season.”
“No, we are not, Nan, dear,” returned Ethel in trembling tones, and catching her little sister in her arms she held her close, kissing her again and again while the great tears rolled down her cheeks and sobs almost choked her.
“O, Ethel, what’s the matter?” cried Nan in affright. “Oh, don’t say you’re going away from me! If you are going you must take me along, for I could never, never do without you! You know I couldn’t.”
Ethel struggled with her emotion, and presently finding her voice, “I’m not going very far, Nan, dear,” she said with a fresh burst of sobs; “and I ought not to cry for it’s best I should go—it will be the best in the end I’m sure, and our uncles are willing.”
“Going where?” asked Nan wildly. “Oh, you shan’t go! I can’t do without you, you know I can’t!”
“But it’s to make the home for you and Blanche and Harry and me; besides, I’ll not be far away and we can often visit each other, and when at last we get the dear home, oh, how happy we shall be!”
“But where are you going? and how do you expect to make the home?”
In answer to that Ethel told the whole story, winding up with, “You see, Nan, dear, it will not be so very hard; in fact, I think I shall like it very much—it will be so nice to feel that I am earning money toward the dear home we shall surely have some day. The worst of it is leaving you; but then it is not at all as if I were going far away; we can see each other very often, perhaps almost every day, and you can tell me all your little secrets just as you always have, and whatever I can do to help you I will. You’re sure of that, aren’t you, darling little sister?”