And the instant she arrived he noticed what this last brief absence had done for her; how subtly her maturing self-confidence had altered the situation, placing her on a new footing with himself. There was a little of the lean, long-legged, sweet-faced girl left: a slender yet rounded symmetry had replaced obvious joints and bones. "What is it—basket ball?" he inquired admiringly. "You like my figure?" she inquired guilelessly. "Oh, I’ve grown up within a month. It’s just what was coming to me." "Nice line of slang they give you up there," he said, laughing. "You’re nearly as tall as I am, too. I don’t know you, little sister." "You never did, little brother. You’ll be sorry some day that you wasted all the school-girl adoration I lavished on you." "Don’t you intend to lavish any more?" he inquired, laughing, yet very keenly alert to her smiling assurance, which was at the same time humourous, provocative and engaging. "I don’t know. I’m over my girlhood illusions. Men are horrid pigs, mostly. It’s a very horrid thing you’re doing to me right now," she said, "—going off to have a wonderful time by yourself for the next two years and leaving me to work in a children’s hospital! But I mean to make you pay for it. Wait and see." "If you’ll come to Europe with me I’ll take you," he said. "You wouldn’t. You’d hate it. You want to be free to prowl. So do I, and I mean to some day." "Why not come now and prowl with me? I’ll take care of you." The girl looked at him with smiling intentness: "If dad hadn’t expressed his wishes, and even if my aunt would let me go, I wouldn’t—now." "Why not?" "Because I shall do no more tagging after you." "What?" "No. And when you return I mean that you shall come and ask my permission to prowl with me.... And if I find you interesting enough I’ll let you. Otherwise, I shall prowl by myself or with some other man." He was laughing, and her face, also, wore a bright and slightly malicious smile. "You don’t believe that’s possible, do you, Jim?—a total reversal of our rôles? You think little sister will tag gratefully after you always, don’t you? Wouldn’t it astonish you if little sister grew up into a desirable and ornamental woman of independent proclivities and tastes, and with a mind and a will of her own? And, to enjoy her company, you’d have to seek her and prove yourself sufficiently interesting; and that you would have to respect her freedom and individuality as you would any man’s!" "I think, little sister," he said, laughing, "that you’ve absorbed a vast deal of modern nonsense at Vassar; that you’re as pretty as a peach; and that you’ll not turn into a maid errant, but will become an ornament to your sex and to society, and that you’ll marry in due time and do yourself proud." "In children, you mean? Numerically?" "Quantitatively and qualitatively. Also, you’ll do yourself proud in the matronly example you’ll set to all women of this great Republic."