They all went into Julia Cloud's room then, and sat down with her on her couch, one on either side of her.
"Do you really mean it, Cloudy Jewel?" asked Leslie happily. "You _don't want_ to get married, not even to that nice Professor Armitage?"
"Look here! Leslie, you said he had a wart!" put in her brother.
"Now keep still, Allison. He was nice all the time; only I didn't like him to want our Cloudy. He didn't seem to be quite nice enough for her. He didn't quite fit her. But if she wanted him----"
"But I don't, Leslie," cried Julia Cloud in distress. "I _never_ did!"
"Are you really true, Cloudy, dear? You're such a dear, unselfish Cloudy. How shall we ever quite be sure she isn't giving him up just for us, Allison?"
"Children, listen!" said Julia Cloud, suddenly putting a quieting hand on each young hand in her lap. "I'll tell you something I never told to a living soul."
There was that in her voice that thrilled them into silence. It was as if she suddenly opened the door of her soul and let them look in on her real self as only God saw her. Their fingers tightened in sympathy as she went on.
"A long time ago--a great many years ago--perhaps you would laugh and think me foolish if you knew how many----"
"Oh, no, Cloudy, never!" said Leslie softly; and Allison growled a dissenting note.
"Well--there was some one whom I loved--who died. That is all; only--I never could love anybody that way again. Marriage without a love like that is a desecration."
"O Cloudy! We never knew----" murmured Leslie.
"No one ever knew, dear. He was very young. We were both scarcely more than children. I was only fourteen----"
"O Cloudy! How beautiful! And you have kept it all these years! Won't you--tell us just a little about it? I think it is wonderful; don't you, Allison?"
"Yes, wonderful!" said Allison in that deep, full tone of his that revealed a man's soul growing in the boy's heart.
"There is very little to tell, dear. He was a neighbor's son. We went to school together, and sometimes took walks on Saturdays. He rode me on his sled, and helped me fasten on my skates, and carried my books; and we played together when we had time to play. Then his people moved away out West; and he kissed me good-by, and told me he was coming back for me some day. That was all there was to it except a few little letters. Then they stopped, and one day his grandmother wrote that he had been drowned saving the life of a little child. Can you understand why I want to wait and be ready for him over there where he is gone? I keep feeling God will let him come for me when my life down here is over."