“That’s my Le! I knew you would! So, now, dear father,” she said, turning to Mr. Force, “you need not go in person, nor send a servant on such a very delicate errand as an impromptu invitation!”
“It is sudden,” admitted Le.
“Oh, yes! You see, the poor, dear children, always have had their Christmas Eve dance as long back as they can remember, and their friends were always invited several days beforehand; but this year, on account—of the late disturbance, Le—there! I will not allude to it again—nothing was said about the dance until this morning, when I proposed it.”
“You, Odalite?”
“Yes, I! Why should the dear children not have their annual dance? But it is so sudden, Le, and some people—as a mere matter of detail, the Grandieres—are such sticklers for etiquette that they might choose to consider an impromptu invitation an impertinence unless it was given in the most particular manner—as by a member of the family going in person to fetch the invited guests. You understand?”
“Yes, I understand,” said Le, smiling broadly with delight.
The sound of the breakfast bell put an end to the conversation, and the whole party filed away to the breakfast table.
Immediately after breakfast Le set out in the “break”—a large, capacious, covered cart, or carriage, capable of holding a dozen people, and drawn by two strong draft horses.
Odalite mingled freely with the family that day, taking part in all the preparations for the evening dance, and entering with ready interest into all the children’s schemes of enjoyment.
“Oh, isn’t it jolly to have the house all to ourselves!” exclaimed Wynnette, who, mounted on the top of a step-ladder, was engaged in twining the mistletoe in and out among the branches of the chandelier that hung from the center of the ceiling. “It is awfully jolly—I mean it is truly comfortable—to have that scalawag—I mean that colonel—away. Odalite, I hope you won’t take it amiss, but I don’t mind telling you that I always felt crowded, not only while he was in the house, but even when he was in the country. And, oh, I know I should feel as if I had ever so much more room if he was off the face of this earth—in some other planet of some other solar system.”