“It isn’t a phenomenon; it is something as old as Eve and as new as Dinah. She thinks she has found her Adam.”
“Ah!” in a constrained voice.
She saw nothing but the fire; the long poker was laid across the fender, a handful of ashes had fallen through the grate. “Such things have to come, like the measles and mumps; I did hope, however, to keep her out of the contagion. But Mother Nature is wiser than any sister.”
“Why is it to be regretted?”
“Because—oh, because, I have learned that one’s eyes are always wide open afterward—they weep much and see clear; one can never be carelessly happy again; I wanted her to stay a little girl. Selfishly, perhaps. I thought there was time enough.”
“It is settled then—so soon?”
“Nothing is settled, but that two people are in love, or believe themselves to be. Am I not a cynical elder sister?”
“Is this her first experience?”
“Who can say when a first experience is! Tennyson and moonlight walks are aggravating at their age.” At their age! She felt as old as Miss Jewett to-night.
“I hope he is worthy of her. She is a jewel.”