“Thank you very much indeed for saying anything so nice,” replied Leslie; “and perhaps now you will allow me in my turn to make a remark. It is this: If by any chance you don’t leave St. Wode’s, Annie, I hope you will allow me to be your roomfellow again next term.”
“Do you mean it?” said Annie, a flash of light coming into her eyes, and then leaving them. “But,” she added abruptly, “you speak of something which must not take place. I must pass in honors; if I don’t I shall die.”
“And you are certain to succeed,” said Leslie in a tone of sympathy. “I wish I could feel as sure of taking honors by and by in literature. I find these modern languages so very stiff.”
“What are you studying now?” asked Annie.
“I have to take German literature from 1500 to the death of Goethe,” said Leslie. “The course is enormous, and I am sometimes almost in despair.”
“But you have only just come; you can easily manage, and in any case, even if you fail——”
“I do not mean to fail any more than you do,” replied Leslie.
Annie did not smile. Her queer red-brown eyes with their distended pupils gazed straight before her.
“It can never mean the same to you,” she said at last in a solemn voice, and then she looked down again at her book, pushed her hands through her red locks, and resumed her contemplation of the problem which lay before her.
A few moments later there came a tap at the door. Annie did not hear it. Leslie opened the door.
“These letters have just come for you and Annie Colchester,” she said: “and, as I was coming upstairs, I thought I would leave them with you.”
Leslie thanked her and eagerly grasped the little parcel. There were two letters for herself—one from her mother and one from Llewellyn. Her eyes shone with pleasure at the anticipation of the delightful time she would have reveling in the home news; the other letter was directed to Annie Colchester.
Now Leslie had not failed to remark that Annie seldom or never got letters, that she had made no real friends in the college, and that, as far as she could tell, she seemed to have no special friend anywhere.
“Here is a letter for you, Annie,” cried Leslie. “I am so glad that you have got one at last——”
She took the letter as she spoke over to Annie, who started up, dropped her pen, and stood with both hands outstretched.