“Why!—yes!—sure enough! This is my little Rosemary, after all!” he exclaimed.
And then she looked up shyly and smiled.
“Come! Let me show you your rooms, girls. And you, Leonidas, convey these young men heavenward. You young Shanghais will have to roost in the loft at the top of the house. Beg pardon. I mean you young gentlemen will be required to repose in the attic chambers of the mansion. Indeed, we shall all have to be packed like herrings in a barrel. Beg pardon, again. I mean like guests at a hotel on Inauguration Day. But the more the merrier, my dears,” sang Wynnette, as she danced upstairs in advance of her party.
Have you ever been in the aviary at the zoo, when all the birds have been singing, chattering and screaming at once?
If you have, you will have some idea of the condition of Mrs. Force’s house on this first evening of their young guests’ arrival.
They chattered in their rooms, they chattered all the way down the stairs, and they chattered around the tea table.
The extension table in the dining room had been drawn out to its full length to accommodate the party of sixteen that sat down to tea.
All these young people sitting opposite each other at the long board, and under the full blaze of the chandeliers, showed how much they had grown, changed and improved during the three years which had elapsed since their last meeting and parting in the country.
Odalite was the most beautiful of the group. She was now nineteen years of age; her elegant form was rather more rounded, her pure complexion brighter, her eyes darker, and her hair richer; her voice was deeper and sweeter; and all her motions more graceful than before.
Wynnette was seventeen; tall, thin and dark; with the same mischievous eyes, snub nose, full, ripe lips, and short, curly, black hair.