heart to see him grope to find her.

It took her a moment to compose herself before she went over to the
window and raised the blind enough to see to read the letter.

Alice had written jubilantly of her progress.

"I am so happy today over a compliment--doesn't that sound vain?--that I
am going to sit right down and share it with you. I should like to get
up on a fence like that little bantam rooster of Darts' and crow it to
all the world. Mrs. Martin, our principal, told me this morning I had
done wonders in three months! And I was so stupid at first--French and
Geometry seemed absolutely impossible. I used to put myself to sleep
saying those awful French verbs. If the French had invented those verbs
on purpose I'd never forgive them. But I suppose your language is like
the color of your hair--you're not responsible. Funny how little of us
is _us_, and how much is somebody else, isn't it? Tell Ernest the first
ten pages of Geometry would have floored me completely if I hadn't
remembered how patiently he used to saw round all those curves and
curlicues in that scroll-work. Every time I flung the old book down and
said 'I can't,' I seemed to see Ernest bent over that old scroll saw
cutting Geometry out of wood. I could not let a fourteen year old boy
beat me. Now the figures are getting as tame as kittens which reminds me
of Jane's kitten.

"We call her Poky Pry because she is always poking her inquisitive nose
into places where she has no business. I was afraid they might not want
her here, but she frisked her way into favor at once. Her usual place
for a morning nap is in Aunt Clara's work basket. We found her once in
Uncle Joseph's silk hat. Another time she got shut in a bureau drawer
and miauwed pitifully to be let out. But her funniest adventure was
going downtown. Uncle Joseph got on the horse car one morning and was
talking to a friend when they heard a soft purring. 'What on earth is
that--it sounds like a cat?' asked the other man. They both looked all
around. As soon as Uncle Joseph moved, the sound ceased. When they
settled down to talk again the purring began again. 'Well, I never!'
said Uncle Joseph. He made another search even getting down to look
under the car seat. The sound ceased the moment he began to hunt.
'Pshaw,' said his friend, 'somebody is playing a trick on us. I've heard
of people who can throw their voices so the sound seems to come from
some other place.' So they settled down once more,