Nancy closed the front door softly behind her that it might not disturb Miss Sabrina's hour of rest. Then she tiptoed up the long stairway. It took but a moment's calculating to decide which door led to the room where the blind had opened. She stopped before it and tapped gently with one knuckle. "Come in," a voice answered. Opening the door, Nancy walked into a room the counterpart of her own, except that a couch was drawn before the blinded windows. And against it half-lay a frail little woman with snow-white hair and tired eyes, shadowing a face that still held a trace of youth. As Nancy hesitated on the threshold a voice singularly sweet called to her: "Come in, my dear! I am your Aunt Milly." CHAPTER IV AUNT MILLY "So this is Anne Leavitt!" But Aunt Milly did not say it at all like Aunt Sabrina, or even crisply, like B'lindy's "so _you're_ the niece," but with a warm, little trill in her voice that made Nancy feel as though she was very, very glad to have her there! 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.