"You know, when we first moved to this apartment, last April, from 'way back in Northam, I was all excitement for a while just to be living in the city. Everything was _so_ different. Really, I acted so _silly_--you wouldn't believe it! I used to run down to the front door half a dozen times a day, just to push the bell and see the door open all by itself! It seemed like something in a fairy-story. And for the longest while I couldn't get used to the dumb-waiter or the steam-heat or the electric lights, and all that sort of thing. It _is_ awfully different from our old-fashioned little Northam--now isn't it?" "Yes, I feel just that way this minute," admitted Janet. "And then, too," went on Marcia, "there were all the things outside to do and see--the trolleys and stores and parks and museums and the zoo! Aunt Minerva said I went around 'like a distracted chicken' for a while! And beside that, we used to have the greatest fun shopping for new furniture and things for this apartment. Hardly a bit of that big old furniture we brought with us would fit into it, these rooms are so much smaller than the ones in our old farm-house. "Well, anyhow, for a while I was too busy and interested and excited to think of another thing--" "Yes, too busy to even write to _me_!" interrupted Janet. "I had about one letter in two weeks from you, those days. And you'd _promised_ to write every other day!" "Oh well, never mind that now! You'd have done the same, I guess. If you don't let me go on, I'll never get to the _secret_! After a while, though, I got used to all the new things, and I'd seen all the sights, and Aunt Minerva had finished all the furnishing except the curtains and draperies (she's at that, yet!), and all of a sudden everything fell flat. I hadn't begun my music-lessons, and there didn't seem to be a thing to do, or a single interest in life. "The truth is, Jan, I was frightfully lonesome--for _you_!" Here Marcia felt her hand squeezed in the darkness. "Perhaps you don't realize it, but living in an apartment in a big city is the _queerest_ thing! You don't know your neighbor that lives right across the hall. You don't know a soul in the house. And as far as I can see, you're not likely to if you lived here fifty years! Nobody calls on you as they do on a new family in the country. Nobody seems to care a rap who you are, or whether you live or die, or anything. And would you believe it, Janet, there isn't another girl in this whole apartment, either older or younger than myself! No one but grown-ups. "So you can see how awfully lonesome I've been. And as Aunt Minerva had decided not to send me to high school till fall, I didn't have a chance to get acquainted with any one of my own age. Actually, it got so I didn't do much else but moon around and mark off the days till school in Northam closed and you could come. And, oh, I'm _so_ glad you're here for the summer! Isn't it gorgeous!" She hugged her chum spasmodically.