Jeff had been wont to sit on a stool at the good lady’s feet. He did so now—on the old stool.
“You may call me what you please, Jeff. It was your child-fancy to accord to me that honourable relationship; so you may continue it if you will. How you are grown, too! I could not have known you had I met you—so big, and with that horrible black beard.”
“Horrible! Miss Millet?”
“Well, terrible, if you prefer it. It’s so bushy and unnatural for one so young.”
“That can hardly be, auntie,” rejoined the youth, with a smile that sent quite a ripple down the objectionable beard, “because my beard was provided by Nature.”
“Well, Jeff,” returned the spinster promptly, “were not scissors and razors provided by—no, it was art that provided them,” she continued with a little smile of confusion; “but they are provided all the same, and— But we won’t pursue that subject, for you men are incorrigible! Now tell me, Jeff, where you have been, and why you didn’t come to see me sooner, and why your letters have been so few—though I admit they were long.”
We will not inflict on the reader all the conversation that ensued. When Jeff had exhausted his narrative, Miss Millet discovered that it was tea-time; and, while engaged in preparations for the evening meal, she enlarged upon some of her projects, being encouraged thereto by Jeff, whose heart was naturally sympathetic.
“But some of my projects are impossible,” she said, with a little sigh. “Some small things, indeed, I have accomplished, with God’s blessing; but there are others which are quite beyond me.”
“Indeed! Tell me now, auntie, if you had Aladdin’s wonderful lamp, what would you ask for?”
“I’d ask for—let me see (the old face became quite thoughtful here)—I’d ask for a library. You see, Cranby is very badly off for books, and people cannot easily improve without reading, you know. Then I would ask for a new church, and a school room, and a town-hall where we might have lectures and concerts, and for a whole street of model-houses for the poor, and a gymnasium, and a swimming-bath and—”