'You'll not be marryin' an Indian prince out there, miss?' put in Deb anxiously.
'Miss Gwen is a Christian,' Patty said solemnly. 'She wouldn't be marryin' a heathen who keeps wives by the score, and eats them up by turns!'
And Gwen laughingly assured them that she meant to return as she went—a single woman.
The days slipped by; Gwen, with her usual energy and determination, arranged for her journey in every detail, and when the time came, took leave of her sisters with cheerful equanimity.
'It is not for very long,' she said; 'and if you want me back sooner, you have only to wire and tell me so. I shall be back, I hope, before Christmas.'
But Christmas seemed to Agatha a long way off, and she perhaps of all the sisters felt most depressed at Gwen's departure.
CHAPTER X
Clare's Discovery
'A closed bud containeth
Possibilities infinite and unknown.'