“Dinner has been waiting full half an hour, papa. And I would like to know where you and Odalite have been gadding to without saying a word to anybody. And I would like also to know—oh! how I should like to know—what has come to everybody in the house, that nobody but Elva and I and Miss Meeke have any common sense left!” exclaimed Wynnette, meeting the returning couple.
“Whereas the simple and exact truth is, that you three are the real and only lunatics in the house, and, like all lunatics, think everybody else but yourselves mad,” laughed the squire, as he led his eldest daughter straight to the dining room.
CHAPTER XII
ODALITE AND LEONIDAS
Before the week was ended Wynnette, as well as every other member of the family, knew “what was the matter.”
Beever, the overseer of Greenbushes, came to consult Miss Force about the size and quality of the Persian rugs to be bought for the bedrooms of the farmhouse.
And Mr. Force, in the presence of the whole family, said that henceforth all these consultations were to be suspended, as Miss Force had nothing further to do with the fitting up of the house.
This caused much surprise, not only to the overseer, but to Wynnette and Elva, who became importunate in their inquiries, and in a manner compelled an explanation.
Great was the indignation of those two young ladies on learning that their dear Le was to be “thrown over” for the sake of that “big, yellow dog,” Col. Anglesea.