“I am sure you will. And I thank you from my soul for the trouble you take. I shall sign some blank checks, for you to fill out, for any funds that may be required for Rosemary,” gratefully responded Miss Grandiere.
The aunt and niece, at the cordial invitation of the Forces, stayed to dinner, and were afterward sent home in a wide buggy driven by Jacob.
One day later Miss Grandiere broached to Mrs. Hedge the subject of sending Rosemary to school with Wynnette and Elva Force, at her own—Miss Grandiere’s—expense.
This consultation with the mother was a mere form, Miss Susannah knowing full well that it was the great ambition of Mistress Dolly’s heart to send her daughter to a good boarding school, and that she would consider the present opportunity most providential.
All the arrangements were most satisfactorily concluded, and by the end of the following week, the Forces, with little Rosemary in their charge, had left Mondreer.
CHAPTER IV
AFTER A LAPSE OF TIME
It was three years after the Forces left Mondreer, and they had never returned to it.
The farm was managed by Jesse Barnes, the capable overseer, and the sales were arranged by Mr. Copp, the family agent, who remitted the revenues of the estate in quarterly installments to Mr. Force.
The lady from the gold mines remained in the house, taking such excellent care of the rooms and the furniture that she had gradually settled down as a permanent inmate, in the character of a salaried housekeeper.
“I’m a-getting too old to be bouncing round prospecting with the boys, and so I reckon I had better sit down in this comfortable sitiwation for the rest of my life,” she confided to Miss Bayard, one February morning, when that descendant of the great duke honored her by coming to spend the day at Mondreer.