Page:Leah Reed--Brenda's summer at Rockley.djvu/383

Rh. For if she could, if the way should ever open, she intended to go to college herself, and she had planned  her High School course with this end in view. Although she admired Julia, she was fonder of Brenda, and the two  were drawn together by the mysterious attraction of friendship, which is no respecter of persons, and which often  brings together those whom observers think very unlike.

Besides the intangible benefits, others that were more evident had come to Amy from her acquaintance with the  family at Rockley. First of all, Julia had sat for a miniature to Mrs. Redmond. When it was finished, Mr. Barlow had been so pleased with it that he had urged Mrs. Barlow to sit.

At one of the sittings at Rockley, Mr. Elston had appeared one morning, and, to Mrs. Barlow’s surprise, he and Mrs. Redmond at once recognized each other.

Before her marriage, when she was Amy Longstreth, Mr. Elston had known Mrs. Redmond, and he had also  known her sister-in-law, now dead, Fanny Redmond.

“Amy Redmond” had therefore seemed to him a strangely familiar name when he had first heard it. He had meant at some time to ask Amy about her family;  but when he saw Mrs. Redmond the coincidence was  explained. Mr. Elston had many questions to ask the latter about people in the distant town that had once been  her home. Years before he had been in the habit of visiting it, and it saddened him to hear of the breaking up of families and of the many changes that had come in the  families of other friends.