Young folks often fail to realize what an interest their doings may have to grown-up people, and how their bright fresh outlook on life may come as a tonic to older and wearier minds.  It never struck Winona to try to amuse or entertain her aunt.  At her present crude stage of development she was incapable of appreciating the subtle pathos that clings round elderly lives, and their wistful longing to be included in the experiences of the rising generation.  Shyness and lack of perception held her silent, and the empty corner in Aunt Harriet’s heart went unfilled.

Saturday and Sunday were the only days upon which Winona had time to feel homesick.  Her mother had at first suggested her returning to Highfield for the week ends, but Miss Beach had strongly vetoed the project on the justifiable ground that even the earliest train from Ashbourne on Monday mornings did not reach Seaton till 9.30, so that Winona would lose the first hour’s lesson of her school week.  She might have added that she considered such frequent home visits would prove highly unsettling and interfere greatly with her work, but for once she refrained from stating her frank opinion, probably deeming the other argument sufficient, and willing to spare Mrs. Woodward’s feelings.

Letters from Highfield showed little change in the usual conduct of family affairs.  The children were still attending Miss Harmon’s school, though they were to leave at Christmas.

“We are late nearly every day now you are not here to make Ernie start,” wrote Mamie, almost as if it were an achievement to be proud of.  “He locked the piano and threw the key in the garden, and we could none of us practice for three days.  Wasn’t it lovely?  Letty pours out tea if mother isn’t in, and yesterday she broke the teapot.”

The chief items of news, however, concerned Percy.  That young gentleman, with what Aunt Harriet considered his usual perversity, had sprained his ankle on the very day before he ought to have returned to school.  He had been ordered to lie up on the sofa, but Winona gathered that the doctor’s directions had not been very strictly carried out.  She strongly suspected that the patient did not wish to recover too quickly.  Whether or not that had been the case, Percy was now convalescent, and was to set off for school on the following Friday.  Longworth College was not a great distance, and as Percy would have to pass through Seaton on his way, Aunt Harriet invited him to break his journey there and spend the night at her house.  She had a poor opinion of the boy’s capacity, but having undertaken a half share in his education she felt an increased sense of responsibility towards him, and wished to find an opportunity of a word with him in private.

Winona hailed her brother’s advent with immense joy.  Even so flying a visit was better than nothing.  Letters were an inadequate means of expression, and she was longing to pour out all her new experiences.  She wanted to tell Percy about the Symposium, and her friendship for Garnet, and the chemistry class, and the gymnasium practice, and to show him her hockey jersey which had just arrived.  She had so long been the recipient of all his school news that it would be delightful to turn the tables and give him a chronicle of her own doings at the Seaton “High,” which in her opinion quite rivaled Longworth College.