"
"Is it Mara?"
Mara's smile and swift approach answered her question. In an instant the
two girls were in each other's arms, their warm Southern hearts touched by
the electric fire of sympathy and mutual understanding. Mrs. Bodine
clapped her little, thin hands and cried, "Oh, that's fine. Southern girls
have not died out yet. Why, even my old withered heart had one of the most
delicious thrills it ever experienced. Now, my dears, come and sit beside
me and get acquainted."
"Oh, I know you already, Mara Wallingford," said Ella with sparkling eyes.
"And I am learning to know you, Ella. I know you already well enough to
love you."
"Well," exclaimed Mrs. Bodine, raising her hands in a comic gesture, "I
reckon the ice is broken between you."
They all laughed at this sally, and Mara was so cheered, her nerves all
tingling with excitement, that she could scarcely believe herself to be
the half-despairing girl of a few hours before. "Now come," resumed Mrs.
Bodine, "let us all be girls together and have a good talk. At this rate
I'll soon be younger than either of you. I haven't had my share yet. Do
you believe it, Ella? Mara has been downstairs petting your father for an
hour."
"I wonder where he is. He wasn't in the parlor when I came in."
"I reckon he followed your good example and went out for a walk. I heard
the door shut. Well, you girls make a picture that it does my old eyes
good to look at.
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