Mrs. Starr looked inquiringly at her husband, but it was Merry who replied. "Not quite that long, dear," she said, slipping an arm about her friend. "I very much want to be in New York on September the first." Just why she glanced quickly up at Jean Sawyer, a pretty flush tinting her cheeks, Jane could not understand. There was an actual pain in her heart, and she caught her breath quickly before she could reply in a voice that sounded natural: "Well, then, at least you and Bob can remain with us for two weeks and that will be better than not at all." The selfish side of Jane's nature was saying to her: "Why urge Merry to remain, when, if she were to go, you could have Jean Sawyer's companionship all to yourself?" But Jane had indeed changed, for she put the thought away from her as unworthy, and gave her friend a little affectionate hug when Mrs. Starr said that the plan was quite agreeable to her. "Good! That's great!" Dan declared warmly. Then he excused himself, for he saw Meg Heger returning with Julie from a "botany expedition" in the foothills. The mountain girl smiled up at him in her frank way when he ran down the garden path toward them. "Have you news to tell us?" she inquired. "You're looking wonderfully well these days, Daniel Abbott. I do not believe that your lungs were affected, after all." "Indeed, they were not!" The boy whirled to walk at Meg's side, and as she smiled up at him in her good comradeship way, he was almost impelled to add, "But my heart is." Instead, he laughed boyishly, and took the basket of specimens that the girl carried. Peeping under the cover, he exclaimed: "Why, if you haven't taken them up, root and all." Meg nodded joyfully. "Wasn't it nice of Mr. Packard to tell me that I might transplant them to my own botany gardens. Aren't they the most exquisite star-like flowers and the most delicate pinks and blues?" Then, when the cover had been replaced, Meg lifted long-lashed, dusky eyes that were more serious. "Dan, do you suppose Jane would mind if I went home this afternoon? Think of it, in another fortnight I will be going to Scarsburg to take the entrance examinations for the normal, and kind old Teacher Bellows is giving me some special review work which I cannot afford to miss." "If you return, I will also," the lad said; then, when he saw that his companion was about to protest, he hurriedly added: "Not because you need my protection, but because I _wish_ to be with you." Meg gave no outward sign of having understood the deep underlying meaning of the words that she had heard, but the warmth in her heart assured her that she was glad, glad that Dan wanted to accompany her.