The trousseau prepared for the girl’s luckless, broken marriage came well into use as an elegant outfit for the fashionable season in the gay capital.
Mr. Force escorted his wife and daughter to all the receptions, concerts, balls and dinners to which they were invited, and everywhere he felt pride and pleasure in the general admiration bestowed upon his beautiful wife and their lovely daughter.
But the instinct of caste was strong in the breast of Elfrida Force. She and her daughter were recipients of many elegant entertainments, and she wished to reciprocate, but could not do so while living at a hotel.
His wife’s wishes, joined to his own longing for the freedom of domestic life, added zeal to Abel Force’s quest of a house.
But it was at the end of the session of Congress before his desire was gratified. Then a United States senator, whose term of office had expired, offered his handsome and elegantly furnished house for rent.
Mr. and Mrs. Force inspected the premises, and leased them for three years.
They did not wish to go in at once, as the season was at an end, and the summer at hand.
But as soon as the retiring statesman and his family had vacated the house Mr. Force sent in a squad of housecleaners to prepare the place for the new tenants.
When the schools closed for the long summer vacation he gave little Rosemary Hedge into the hands of Miss Grandiere, who had come to Washington to fetch her home, and with his wife and three daughters left the city for an extensive summer tour.
After three months of varied travel the family returned to Washington in September, and took possession of the beautiful town house, near the P Street circle, in the northwest section of the city.