Then they replaced their daughters and their little ward at the same school—not as boarders, however, but as day pupils, for Mr. and Mrs. Force wished to have their girls as much as possible under their own care, believing home education to be the most influential for good—or for evil—of all possible training.
When Congress met, and the season began, Mrs. Force took the lead by giving a magnificent ball, to which all the beauty, fashion, wealth and celebrity of the national capital were invited, to which they nearly all came.
The ball was a splendid success.
The beautiful Elfrida Force became an acknowledged queen of society, and her lovely young daughter was the belle of the season.
Had no one in the city then heard of her disastrous wedding broken up at the altar?
Not a soul had heard of it. Not one of those friends and acquaintances of Mrs. Force whom she had met in Washington, for, be it remembered, she had written to no one of her daughter’s approaching marriage, and had bid to the wedding only the nearest neighbors and oldest friends of her family.
Odalite was saved this unmerited humiliation, at least—though many who admired the beautiful girl wondered that the lovely, dark eyes never sparkled, the sweet lips never smiled.
In this season she had several “eligible” offers of marriage—one from a young officer in the army; another from a middle-aged banker; another from an aged cabinet minister; a fourth from a foreign secretary of legation; a fifth from a distinguished lawyer; a sixth from a brilliant congressman; a seventh from a fashionable preacher; and so on and so on.
All these were declined with courtesy.
Odalite took very little pleasure in the gay life of Washington, and very little pride in her conquests.