Sylvia quickly established herself on terms of good comradeship with her
pupil. Blackford was old enough to find the proximity of a pretty girl
agreeable, and Sylvia was sympathetic and encouraging. When he confided
to her his hopes of a naval career (he had finally renounced the Army)
Sylvia sent off to Annapolis for the entrance requirements. She told him
of her Grandfather Kelton's service in the Navy and recounted some of
the old professor's exploits in the Civil War. The stories Sylvia had
heard at her grandfather's knee served admirably as a stimulus. As the
appointments to Annapolis had to be won in competitive examinations she
soon persuaded him that the quicker he buckled down to hard study the
sooner he would attain the goal. This matter arranged, Mrs. Bassett went
back to bed, where she received Sylvia occasionally and expressed her
sorrow that Mrs. Owen, at her time of life, should be running a
boarding-house for a lot of girls who were better off at work. Her aunt
was merely making them dissatisfied with their lot. She did not guess
the import of the industries in Mrs. Owen's kitchen, as reported through
various agencies; they were merely a new idiosyncracy of her aunt's old
age, a deplorable manifestation of senility.
Sylvia was a comfortable confessor; Mrs. Bassett said many things to her
that she would have liked to say to Mrs.
Pages:
487
488
489
490
491
492
493
494
495
496
497
498
499
500
501
502
503
504
505
506
507
508
509
510
511