"I thought I saw a shadow pass the window, but I must have been
mistaken. She didn't come in, or we would have seen her before
now. I knew it was too early for her to get home from Addie
Slocum's, anyhow."

When Rebecca went to bed Agnes had not returned. Rebecca had
resolved that she would not retire until the girl came, but she was
very tired, and she reasoned with herself that she was foolish.
Besides, Mrs. Dent suggested that Agnes might go to the church
social with Addie Slocum. When Rebecca suggested that she be sent
for and told that her aunt had come, Mrs. Dent laughed meaningly.

"I guess you'll find out that a young girl ain't so ready to leave
a sociable, where there's boys, to see her aunt," said she.

"She's too young," said Rebecca incredulously and indignantly.

"She's sixteen," replied Mrs. Dent; "and she's always been great
for the boys."

"She's going to school four years after I get her before she thinks
of boys," declared Rebecca.

"We'll see," laughed the other woman.

After Rebecca went to bed, she lay awake a long time listening for
the sound of girlish laughter and a boy's voice under her window;
then she fell asleep.