"Yes, it _is_ good-by; but I have promised him that it shall soon be
how-do-you-do again. Mount Cheyenne and I understand each other."
"I know; you have always had a sentimental attachment to that mountain.
Now Pike's Peak is _my_ affinity. We get on beautifully together."
"Pike's Peak indeed! I am ashamed of you."
Then the train moved away amid a flutter of handkerchiefs, but still
Clover and Phil were not left to themselves; for Dr. Hope, who had a
consultation in Denver, was to see them safely off in the night express,
and Geoff had some real or invented business which made it necessary for
him to go also.
Clover carried with her through all the three days' ride the lingering
pressure of Geoff's hand, and his whispered promise to "come on soon." It
made the long way seem short. But when they arrived, amid all the kisses
and rejoicings, the exclamations over Phil's look of health and vigor, the
girls' intense interest in all that she had seen and done, papa's warm
approval of her management, her secret began to burn guiltily within her.
What _would_ they all say when they knew?
And what did they say? I think few of you will be at a loss to guess.
Life--real life as well as life in story-books--is full of such shocks and
surprises. They are half happy, half unhappy; but they have to be borne.
Younger sisters, till their own turns come, are apt to take a severe view
of marriage plans, and to feel that they cruelly interrupt a past order of
things which, so far as they are concerned, need no improvement.
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