Two frail little hands caught Nancy's and squeezed them in such a human way that Nancy leaned over impulsively and kissed Miss Milly on her cheek.
"I am so very glad to know you." Aunt Milly dashed a tear away from her cheek. "I've counted the hours—after Sabrina told me you were coming. To-day I lay here listening for Webb and then must have fallen asleep, so that when you really came I didn't know it. Wasn't that silly? Sit right down, dear—no, not in that old chair, it's so uncomfortable—pull up that rocker. Let me get a good look at you!"
Nancy did not even dread Miss Milly's "good look"—she was so delightfully human! She pulled the rocker close to the lounge and stretched out in it with a happy little sigh.
"I thought I'd never get here! It seems as though this is way off in the corner of the world. And I'm just tired enough to find the—the quiet downright restful."
Aunt Milly laughed. "I've been worrying over the 'quiet.' It's so dreadfully quiet here—for young folks. I was afraid it would make you homesick. Now tell me all about your trip and your Commencement. I've been going over in my mind just what your Commencement must have been like—ever since Sabrina told me we had a niece who was a Senior in college. It must be wonderful!" she finished, with just the tiniest bit of a sigh.
Suddenly Nancy realized that here was someone hungry to know all that was going on in the world outside of North Hero—not the world of men and women, but her girl's world—that world that had ended Commencement Day. She told a few little things about Senior Week, then, a little homesick for all that had just been left behind, she rattled off one recollection after another with an enthusiasm that kindled an answering fire in Miss Milly's eyes.
"I can't bear to think it's all over—except that life itself is one grand adventure and probably, after a little, I'll look back on the school days and think how empty they were of—real things!" Then Nancy, looking down at the frail white hand that clasped her own, thought with a sort of shock that life was scarcely an adventure for poor Miss Milly. But Miss Milly answered contentedly. "I love to hear all about it. I'm glad you had it, my dear. I hope you'll come in and talk with me often—it's like sunshine hearing your young voice!"
"Oh, I shall like to. You won't think I'm dreadful, will you, if I tell you that Aunt Sabrina frightens me awfully and so does B'lindy—just a little. But you don't seem a bit like them."
Miss Milly laughed outright—a laugh that had a silver tinkle in it. "No, I suppose I'm not—a bit like them."
"So when I'm so frightened I don't know what to do I shall come straight to you. And, please, Aunt Milly, will you call me Nancy? No one has ever called me anything but that and it makes me feel—like someone else—when they call me Anne. Aunt Sabrina was horrified when I asked her."