"I heard you were coming—I did not know just when. It is good to see you back, Vick!"
There was a comfortable largeness in the atmosphere of this woman, which suited the homely background of the square farm-house and the peaceful orchard. And there was a pleasant warmth in her tone.
"How do you find it?" she asked; "or perhaps you haven't had time yet to know."
"It hardly seems like being home," Vickers admitted, "everything is so changed—everything but this!" he added gratefully, thinking of Alice as well as the farm.
"Yes,—the country has changed, so many rich people have bought places. And your old home—" She hesitated to complete her sentence.
"I can't find my way around there." Vickers laughed. "What would the
Colonel say!"
Alice looked as if she preferred not to think what the Colonel might say of his daughter's alterations.
"I suppose Isabelle had to have more room,—she has so many people with her. And you will find that life has changed over here in ten years."
"Nothing but change!"
"Except among the poor! … No, Tot, you can't eat the pods. There, boys, take sister and run out to the barn to help Charlie wash the buggy…. How does Isabelle seem to you?"