"We're her grandchildren," volunteered Fairy, anxious to be in the game.
"Incredible! Such a young and charming lady with grandchildren! Now I should have said you were the grandmother," with another elaborate bow to Fairy.
Laughing at Leicester's nonsense, they all went up-stairs together, and discovered a perfect maze of bedrooms.
Scattering in different directions, the children opened door after door, pulled up blinds, and flung open windows, and screamed to each other to come and see their discoveries. Tessie followed the tribe around, wondering if she were really in fairyland. The unsophisticated Irish girl had never seen a house like this before, and to think it belonged to the people with whom she was to live, suddenly filled her with a great awe of the Dorrance family.
"Do you like it, Tessie?" asked Mrs. Dorrance, seeing the girl's amazed expression.
"Oh, yis, mum! Shure, I niver saw anything so grand, mum. It's a castle, it is."
"That's right, Tessie," said Leicester; "a castle is the same as a domain. And all these millions of bedrooms are part of our Domain. Our very own! Hooray for the Dorrance Domain!"
The wild cheer that accompanied and followed Leicester's hurrah must have been audible on the other side of Lake Ponetcong. At any rate it served as a sort of escape-valve for their overflowing enthusiasm, which otherwise must soon have gotten beyond their control.
"I think," said Mrs. Dorrance, "that it would be wise for you each to select the bedroom you prefer,—for to-night at least. If you choose to change your minds to-morrow, I don't know of any one who will object."
"Oh!" said Lilian, "to think of changing your room in a hotel just as often as you like, and nobody caring a bit! I shall have a different one every night."