Thorpe found his sister already a young lady. After the first delight of meeting had passed, they sat side by side on the haircloth sofa and took stock of each other.
Helen had developed from the school child to the woman. She was a handsome girl, possessed of a slender, well-rounded form, deep hazel eyes with the level gaze of her brother, a clean-cut patrician face, and a thorough-bred neatness of carriage that advertised her good blood. Altogether a figure rather aloof, a face rather impassive; but with the possibility of passion and emotion, and a will to back them.
“Oh, but you're tanned and--and BIG!” she cried, kissing her brother. “You've had such a strange winter, haven't you?”
Another man would have struck her young imagination with the wild, free thrill of the wilderness. Thus he would have gained her sympathy and understanding. Thorpe was too much in earnest.
“Things came a little better than I thought they were going to, toward the last,” said he, “and I made a little money.”
“Oh, I'm so glad!” she cried. “Was it much?”
“No, not much,” he answered. The actual figures would have been so much better! “I've made arrangements with Mrs. Renwick to hire a servant girl, so you will have all your time free; and I have paid a year's tuition for you in the Seminary.”
After a time, “Thank you very much, Harry dear.” Then after another interval, “I think I'll go get ready for supper.”
Instead of getting ready for supper, she paced excitedly up and down her room.
“Oh, why DIDN'T he say what he was about?” she cried to herself. “Why didn't he! Why didn't he!”
Next morning she opened the subject again.
“Harry, dear,” said she, “I have a little scheme, and I want to see if it is not feasible. How much will the girl and the Seminary cost?”
“Well now, see, dear. With four hundred dollars I can live for a year very nicely by boarding with some girls I know who live in a sort of a club; and I could learn much more by going to the High School and continuing with some other classes I am interested in now. Why see, Harry!” she cried, all interest. “We have Professor Carghill come twice a week to teach us English, and Professor Johns, who teaches us history, and we hope to get one or two more this winter. If I go to the Seminary, I'll have to miss all that. And Harry, really I don't want to go to the Seminary. I don't think I should like it. I KNOW I shouldn't.”