pa
should not come hurrying home, as he used in their long London winters,
to demand an instant start for some distant place. When the traveling
kit was first bestowed in the lower drawer of one of the deep bureaus,
Betty felt as if it might have to come out again next day, but there it
stayed, and was abandoned to neglect unless its owner needed the tumbler
in its stiff leather box for a picnic, or thought of a particular spool
that might be found in the traveling work-bag. But with all the quiet
and security of her surroundings, sometimes her thoughts followed papa
most wistfully, or she wondered what her friends were doing on the other
side of the sea. It was very queer to be obliged to talk about entirely
new and different things, and Tideshead affairs alone, and not to have
anybody near who knew the same every-day life that had stopped when she
came to Tideshead, and so letters were most welcome. Indeed, they made a
great part of the summer's pleasure. Suppose we read a handful as if we
had picked them from Betty's pocket:--

INTERLAKEN, _July 2._

MY DEAR BETTY,--It was very good of you to write
me so soon. You would be sure that I was eager to
hear from you, and to know whether you had a good
voyage and found yourself contented in Tideshead.
I am sure that your grandaunts are even more glad
to have you than I was sorry to let you go. But we
must have a summer here together one of these
days; you would be sure to like Interlaken. It
seems to me pleasanter and quainter than ever;
that is, if one takes the trouble to step a little
one side of the torrent of tourists. Our rooms in
the old _pension_ are well lighted and aired, and
two of my windows give on the valley toward the
Jungfrau and the high green mountain slopes. Every
morning since we have been here I have looked out
to see a fresh dazzling whiteness of new snow that
has covered the Jungfrau in the night, and we
always say with a sigh every evening, as we look
up out of the shadowy valley and see the high peak
still flushed with red sunset light, that such
clear weather cannot possibly last another day.
There are some old Swiss chalets across the green,
and we hear pleasant sounds of every-