“Oh, I see,” assented the youth, and he went out.
Wynnette and Elva were waiting for him in the upper hall. They had held council together and decided not to tell him anything about Col. Anglesea’s and Odalite’s engagement.
“For,” said canny Wynnette, “perhaps now that Le has come back Odalite may return to her first love.”
And Elva agreed with her.
Now as soon as Le appeared in the hall the two children fell upon him with the most extravagant welcomes and caresses, and, refusing to be shaken off, went up with him to his room.
In the meanwhile, in her bedchamber, Mrs. Force was doing all that she could to restore her daughter.
In a little while Odalite opened her eyes and fixed them full of unutterable anguish and reproach upon her mother’s bending face.
She did not mean to do so. It was the first involuntary expression of her waking consciousness.
“Oh, do not look at me so, my child! You will break my heart!” moaned Elfrida Force.
Odalite took her mother’s hand and kissed it tenderly; then closed her eyes and turned away her head.