Page:Leah Reed--Brenda's summer at Rockley.djvu/367

Rh She could not help smiling when she noticed that “The Countess” novels had disappeared from her cousin’s book-shelves.

“I might have argued against them for weeks, without affecting Brenda in the least. She would have thought that books that I called a waste of time to read myself  would not be equally harmful to her. She would have thought that I was measuring everything by a College  standard. But Amy—well, Amy is a girl like herself, a few months younger in fact, and she has succeeded,  without any effort on her own part, in making Brenda  admire her. Why, Brenda is almost anxious to follow in Amy’s footsteps! A mere cousin does n’t count for much at such a time.”

Julia’s words were probably as near a true explanation of Brenda’s feeling as any that could be given.