'You cannot give me lessons when you are away.'
'But when I come back!'
There was a very faint yet distinct lightening of the gloom in her face. Yet it was plain Esther was not cheated out of her perception of the truth. She was going to lose her friend; and his absence would be very different from his presence; and the bits of vacation time would not help, or help only by anticipation, the long stretches of months in which there would be neither sight nor sound of him. Esther's looks had brightened for a moment, but then her countenance fell again and her face grew visibly pale. Pitt saw it with dismay.
'But Esther!' he said, 'this is nothing. Every man must go to college, you know, just as he must learn swimming and boating; and so I must go; but it will not last for ever.'
'How long?' said she, lifting her eyes to him again, heavy with their burden of sorrow.
'Well, perhaps three years; unless I enter Junior, and then it would be only two. That isn't much.'
'What will you do then?'
'Then? I don't know. Look after you, at any rate. Let us see. How old will you be in two years?'
'Almost fourteen.'
'Fourteen. Well, you see you will have a great deal to do before you can afford to be fourteen years old; so much that you will not have time to miss me.'