"Connie?"
"Yes."
"You don"t mean Connie."
Aunt Grace smiled.
"Why, Grace, you"re--you"re off. Excuse me for saying it, but--you"re crazy. Connie--why, Connie has never been any trouble in her life.
Connie!"
"You"ve never had any friction with Connie, she"s always been right so far. One of these days she"s pretty likely to be wrong, and Connie doesn"t yield very easily."
"But Connie"s so sober and straight, and--"
"That"s the kind."
"She"s so conscientious."
"Yes, conscientious."
"She"s--look here, Grace, there"s nothing the matter with Connie."
"Of course not, William. That isn"t what I mean. But you ought to be getting very, very close to Connie right now, for one of these days she"s going to need a lot of that extra companionship Prudence told you about. Connie wants to know everything. She wants to see everything.
None of the other girls ever yearned for city life. Connie does. She says when she is through school she"s going to the city."
"What city?"
"Any city."
"What for?"
"For experience."
Mr. Starr looked about him helplessly. "There"s experience right here,"
he protested feebly. "Lots of it. Entirely too much of it."
"Well, that"s Connie. She wants to know, to see, to feel. She wants to live. Get close to her, get chummy. She may not need it, and then again she may. She"s very young yet."
"All right, I will. It is well I have some one to steer me along the proper road." He looked regretfully out of the window. "I ought to be able to see these things for myself, but the girls seem perfectly all right to me. They always have. I suppose it"s because they"re mine."
Aunt Grace looked at him affectionately. "It"s because they"re the finest girls on earth," she declared. "That"s why. But we want to be ready to help them if they need it, just because they are so fine. They will every one be splendid, if we give them the right kind of a chance."
He sat silent a moment. "I"ve always wanted one of them to marry a preacher," he said, laughing apologetically. "It is very narrow-minded, of course, but a man does make a hobby of his own profession. I always hoped Prudence would. I thought she was born for it. Then I looked to Fairy, and she turned me down. I guess I"ll have to give up the notion now."
She looked at him queerly. "Maybe not."
"Connie might, I suppose."
"Connie," she contradicted promptly, "will probably marry a genius, or a rascal, or a millionaire."
He looked dazed at that.
She leaned forward a little. "Carol might."
"Carol--"
"She might." She watched him narrowly, a smile in her eyes.
"Carol"s too worldly."
"You don"t believe that."
"No, not really. Carol--she--why, you know when I think of it, Carol wouldn"t be half bad for a minister"s wife. She has a sense of humor, that is very important. She"s generous, she"s patient, she"s unselfish, a good mixer,--some of the ladies might think her complexion wasn"t real, but--Grace, Carol wouldn"t be half bad!"
"Oh, William," she sighed, "can"t you remember that you are a Methodist minister, and a grandfather, and--grow up a little?"
After that Mr. Starr returned to normal again, only many times he and Connie had little outings together, and talked a great deal. And Aunt Grace, seeing it, smiled with satisfaction. But the twins and Fairy settled it in their own minds by saying, "Father was just a little jealous of all the beaux. He was looking for a pal, and he"s found Connie."
But in spite of his new devotion to Connie, Mr. Starr also spent a great deal of time with Fairy. "We must get fast chums, Fairy," he often said to her. "This is our last chance. We have to get cemented for a lifetime, you know."
And Fairy, when he said so, caught his hand and laughed a little tremulously.
Indeed, he was right when he said it was his last chance with Fairy in the parsonage. Two weeks before her commencement she had slipped into the library and closed the door cautiously behind her.
"Father," she said, "would you be very sorry if I didn"t teach school after all?"
"Not a bit," came the ready answer.
"I mean if I--you see, father, since you sent me to college I feel as if I ought to work and--help out."
"That"s nonsense," he said, drawing the tall girl down to his knees. "I can take care of my own family, thanks. Are you trying to run me out of my job? If you want to work, all right, do it, but for yourself, and not for us. Or if you want to do anything else," he did not meet her eyes, "if you want to stay at home a year or so before you get married, it would please us better than anything else. And when you want to marry Gene, we"re expecting it, you know."
"Yes, I know," she fingered the lapel of his coat uneasily. "Do you care how soon I get married?"
"Are you still sure it is Gene?"
"Yes, I"m sure."
"Then I think you should choose your own time. I am in no hurry. But any time,--it"s for you, and Gene, to decide."
"Then you haven"t set your heart on my teaching?"
"I set my heart on giving you the best chance possible. And I have done it. For the rest, it depends on you. You may work, or you may stay at home a while. I only want you to be happy, Fairy."
"But doesn"t it seem foolish to go clear through college, and spend the money, and then--marry without using the education?"
"I do not think so. They"ve been fine years, and you are finer because of them. There"s just as much opportunity to use your fineness in a home of your own as in a public school. That"s the way I look at it."
"You don"t think I"m too young?"