"If I knew how"—and the girl gave a little sigh.
"Let me see the letter." Marian had been reading it aloud. "I don't know but you might go, but I don't care to have you in the rabble of the week after. It would be a grand thing if that young Carrington would fancy Jaqueline and she would have sense enough to accept him. But such girls go through the woods and take a crooked stick at last."
Nothing more was said for a day or two. Marian found an old engraving of a Vandyke collar and cuffs, only they were done in point lace. What kind of net was used, she wondered. And then her mother decided she would go down for the day and leave Marian for a night or two. But grandfather had a poorly spell, and she thought it best not to leave him. Marian rode her horse down, attended by old Cato, who had to go to Alexandria on some business and would escort her home on the third day.
"Oh, good gracious!" cried Jaqueline; "if she had come! For the rabble is here already, and someone you will like to see. They've gone off fishing. Betty and Hester Fairfax and Georgie Baker are out on the west porch. We're in for a good time. Mr. Ralston and Roger Carrington came down with Louis, and to-night we are going to have a little dance."
"Mother approves of Elizabeth Fairfax. And I do want to know about the Vandyke cape and the cap pattern. Oh, Jacky!"
Marian clasped her arms about her cousin, and the obnoxious name was forgiven. For the warm pressure was full of gratitude.
"You are so wise about things, Jaqueline. Of course mother sees all our letters—"
"As if I didn't know that," laughed Jaqueline.
"But I wonder—oh, Jaqueline, do you suppose I will have to marry Mr. Greaves? You see, father has set his heart upon it. And I should be so near them, and so—"
"The idea! A man double your age, and four children! You don't even like him. What is youth for but a time to be merry and glad and to have good times? And it was a shame you could not come to Washington! Lieutenant Ralston would have taken you everywhere, and Jane was up to white heat about it. It was all splendid. You're not engaged—you can't have been so foolish!"