"I suppose so."
"I like that!" flamed Marion. "Why can't they leave you behind in Kingfield, to finish at the High?"
"Oh, I wish they would!"
"I wish they'd leave you with us," said Marion impulsively. "Mother'd adore to have you—she likes you awfully—and as for me I'd dance a jubilee. I've always wanted a sister, and we get on so well together, don't we? Oh, it would be sport!"
"It would indeed!" agreed Lesbia wistfully.
She ventured to mention the great idea to Minnie, who laughed, and then looked suddenly hurt.
"Nonsense, Lesbia child," she said. "We're not going away and leaving you behind. I'm sure the Morwoods don't want you as a legacy."
"Marion said they did!"
"Girls like Marion talk a great deal of rubbish, so don't listen to her. I've put a packing-case in your bedroom, and you may fill it with books and any other things you like to take. It will go in the hold of the vessel. Your clothes must be packed in the tin box and the cabin trunk. We'll buy our fur coats when we get over. They'll be cheaper in Canada than in England."
The Hilton household was naturally deep in preparations for the forthcoming upheaval. Clothes, books, and a few special treasures were to go with them, but they were leaving the furniture to be sold, and would re-furnish when they found a house in Belleville. The children, who now shared the open secret, ran about in much excitement, anxious to start at once on what seemed to them a second summer holiday.