“Oh, I know! I know!” exclaimed Odalite, with a bright smile.
“Who was it? Which was it? What was his name?” came in a dozen tones from the young people present.
“No; since papa has not named him, I must not,” said Odalite.
And then the sound of the supper bell summoned them to the table.
Two days after that Mr. Force received a letter from the New York agent of the Cunard line of steamers, telling him that the first steamer on which they could accommodate so large a party as the Forces’ would be the Persia, which would sail on the twenty-eighth of May. There were not so many ocean steamers then as now, and people had to secure their passages a long way beforehand.
“The twenty-eighth of may! Nearly two months! What a nuisance! But it is because there are so many of us! Seven cabin passengers for the first, and two for the second cabin! However, wife, I will tell you what we will do: We will go down to Mondreer to spend the intervening time; and we will give up this house at once. You know our lease expired on the first of April—two days ago—and we are only staying here a few days on sufferance, because the house is not wanted at this season. Yes; we will go down to Mondreer. What do you say?” inquired Abel Force of his wife, to whom he had just read the agent’s letter.
“We will go down to Mondreer as soon as the Grandieres have finished their visit. We invited them for a week, you know, and they have been here but three days, and have seen but little of the city. And as to the house, I suppose we will pay at the same rate at which we leased it, so long as we shall stay,” replied Mrs. Force.
The evening mail brought a letter from Beever, the overseer at Mondreer, giving good accounts of the estate; and also a letter from Miss Grandiere, acquiescing in Mr. Force’s plans, and begging on the part of her sister, Mrs. Hedge, as well as on her own, that Mr. and Mrs. Force would use their own judgment in all matters connected with Rosemary and the voyage; only stipulating that the child should be sent home to visit her friends before going abroad.
Mr. Force wrote and mailed three letters that afternoon. One to the New York agent of the Cunard steamships, engaging accommodations for his whole party for the Persia, on the twenty-eighth of May; another to Beever, expressing satisfaction at the report of affairs at Mondreer, and announcing his speedy return with his family to their country home; and a third to Miss Grandiere, telling her that Rosemary would be with her in a few days.
Then Mr. Force turned his attention to the young guests of the family, and put himself out a little to show them around Washington City and its suburbs.