t yet distinct lightening of the gloom in her
face. Yet it was plain Esther was not cheated out of her perception of
the truth. She was going to lose her friend; and his absence would be
very different from his presence; and the bits of vacation time would
not help, or help only by anticipation, the long stretches of months in
which there would be neither sight nor sound of him. Esther's looks had
brightened for a moment, but then her countenance fell again and her
face grew visibly pale. Pitt saw it with dismay.

'But Esther!' he said, 'this is nothing. Every man must go to college,
you know, just as he must learn swimming and boating; and so I must go;
but it will not last for ever.'

'How long?' said she, lifting her eyes to him again, heavy with their
burden of sorrow.

'Well, perhaps three years; unless I enter Junior, and then it would be
only two. That isn't much.'

'What will you do then?'

'Then? I don't know. Look after you, at any rate. Let us see. How old
will you be in two years?'

'Almost fourteen.'

'Fourteen. Well, you see you will have a great deal to do before you
can afford to be fourteen years old; so much that you will not have
time to miss me.'

Esther made no answer.

'I'll be back at Christmas anyhow, you know; and that's only three
months away, or a little more.'

'For how long?'

'Never mind; we will make a little do the work of a great deal. It will
seem a long time, it will be so good.'

'No,' said Esther; 'that will make it only the shorter.'

'Why, Esther,' said he, half laughing, 'I didn't know you cared so much
about me. I don't deserve all that.'

'I am not crying,' said the girl, rising with a sort of childish
dignity; 'but I shall be alone.'

They had been sitting on a rock, resting and talking, and now set out
again to go home. Esther spoke no more; and Pitt was silent, not
knowing what to say; but he watched her, and saw that if she had not
been crying at the time she had made that declaration, the tears had
taken their revenge and were coming now. Yet only in a calm, repressed
way; now and then he saw a drop fall, or caught a motion of Esther's
hand which could only have been made to prevent a drop from falling.
She walked along steadily, turning neither to the right hand nor the
left; she who ordinarily watched every hedgerow and ran to explore
every group of plants in the corner of a field, and was keen to see
everything that was to be seen in earth or heaven.