[Illustration: Elizabeth as I found her again.]
At last mother sent for me to come to them in the summer vacation.
Oh, how good it was to go home again! How nice they all were, and
what quiet content I felt, though I knew I should never forget! The
six weeks went by like a dream. On the last day, as I was leaving,
mother gave me a letter from Jacob Riis, of whom I had not thought
for a long while. It was a letter of proposal, and I was angry. I
answered it, however, as nicely as I could, and sent the letter to
his mother. Then I returned to my three pupils in their pleasant
country home, and soon we were busy with our studies and our walks.
But I felt lonelier than ever, longed more than ever for the days
that had been and would never return. I could not sleep, and grew
pale and thin. And ever Raymond's words about a friend, good and
faithful, who loved me truly, came back to me. Did he mean Jacob,
who had surely proved constant, and like me, had suffered much?
He was lonely and I was lonely, oh! so lonely! What if I were to
accept his offer, and when he came home go back with him to his
strange new country to share his busy life, and in trying to make
him happy, perhaps find happiness myself? Unless I asked him to
come, he would probably never return.
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