Page:Emily Climbs.pdf/171

 “‘Things like that don’t happen,’ I said. ‘They are foreordained.’

“June 3, 19—

“The Land of Uprightness is a thing of beauty. I can go to the Fern Pool to write again. Aunt Ruth is very suspicious of this performance. She has never forgotten that I ‘met Perry’ there one evening. The Pool is very lovely now, under its new young ferns. I look into it and imagine it is the legendary pool in which one could see the future. I picture myself tiptoeing to it at midnight by full o’ moon—casting something precious into it—then looking timidly at what I saw.

“What it show me? The Alpine Path gloriously climbed? Or failure?

“No, never failure!

“June 9, 19—

“Last week Aunt Ruth had a birthday and I gave her a centre-piece which I had embroidered. She thanked me rather stiffly and didn’t seem to care anything about it.

“Tonight I was sitting in the bay window recess of the dining-room, doing my algebra by the last light. The folding-doors were open and Aunt Ruth was talking to Mrs. Ince in the parlour. I thought they knew I was in the bay, but I suppose the curtains hid me. All at once I heard my name. Aunt Ruth was showing the centre-piece to Mrs. Ince—quite proudly.

“‘My niece Em’ly gave me this on my birthday. See how beautifully it is done—she is very skilful with her needle.’

“Could this be Aunt Ruth? I was so petrified with amazement that I could neither move nor speak.

“‘She is clever with more than her needle,’ said Mrs. Ince. “I hear Principal Hardy expects her to head her class in the terminal examinations.’

“‘Her mother—my sister Juliet—was a clever girl,’ said Aunt Ruth.