'And you must go on with all your studies, Esther, you know,' he was saying. 'I will show you what to do, and when I come home I shall go into a very searching examination to see whether you have done it all thoroughly.' 'Will you?' she said, lifting her eyes to him with a gleam of sudden hope. 'Certainly! I shall give you lessons just as usual whenever I come home; indeed, I expect I shall do it all your life. I think I shall always be teaching and you always be learning. Don't you think that is how it will be, Queen Esther?' he said kindly. 'You cannot give me lessons when you are away.' 'But when I come back!' There was a very faint yet distinct lightening of the gloom in her face. Yet it was plain Esther was not cheated out of her perception of the truth. She was going to lose her friend; and his absence would be very different from his presence; and the bits of vacation time would not help, or help only by anticipation, the long stretches of months in which there would be neither sight nor sound of him. Esther's looks had brightened for a moment, but then her countenance fell again and her face grew visibly pale. Pitt saw it with dismay. 'But Esther!' he said, 'this is nothing. Every man must go to college, you know, just as he must learn swimming and boating; and so I must go; but it will not last for ever.' 'How long?' said she, lifting her eyes to him again, heavy with their burden of sorrow. 'Well, perhaps three years; unless I enter Junior, and then it would be only two. That isn't much.' 'What will you do then?' 'Then? I don't know. Look after you, at any rate. Let us see. How old will you be in two years?' 'Almost fourteen.' 'Fourteen. Well, you see you will have a great deal to do before you can afford to be fourteen years old; so much that you will not have time to miss me.' Esther made no answer. 'I'll be back at Christmas anyhow, you know; and that's only three months away, or a little more.' 'For how long?' 'Never mind; we will make a little do the work of a great deal. It will seem a long time, it will be so good.' 'No,' said Esther; 'that will make it only the shorter.' 'Why, Esther,' said he, half laughing, 'I didn't know you cared so much about me. I don't deserve all that.' 'I am not crying,' said the girl, rising with a sort of childish dignity; 'but I shall be alone.'