These were all sent home in the evening, carefully packed in a large deal box, which, with a letter at its bottom, was dispatched by express to Mrs. Angus Anglesea, Charlotte Hall, Maryland.
CHAPTER IX
VALENTINES AT MONDREER
It was the fourteenth of February, St. Valentine’s Feast and All Birds’ Wedding Day!
It was a bright morning, with a sunny blue sky, and a soft breeze giving a foretaste of early spring.
Miss Sibby Bayard had come by special invitation to dine, and take tea with the housekeeper at Mondreer.
The two ladies were seated in Mrs. Force’s favorite sitting room, whose front window looked east upon the bay, and whose side window looked north into the woods.
A bright, open wood fire was burning in the wide fireplace, at which they sat in two rocking-chairs with their feet upon the brass fender.
Mrs. Anglesea had the edge of her skirt drawn up as usual, for, as she often declared, she would rather toast her shins before the fire than eat when she was hungry, or sleep when she was sleepy.
Miss Sibby was knitting one of a pair of white lamb’s-wool socks for her dear Roland.
Mrs. Anglesea was letting out the side seams of her Sunday basque.