“Are you so anxious to leave the sweet old home?” inquired General Lyon, a little reproachfully.
“Oh, no indeed. Only when we do go, we must go to Cedarwood.”
“Agreed,” said the General, “we will go there next winter.”
And so the matter was settled; for though all his young people were grown up and married, yet the word of the veteran soldier was law in the family circle.
During all this time Drusilla had not heard from Alexander or even expected to hear from him. She did not grieve after him. In the “sweet old home,” in the love of her dear friends and in the caresses of her darling boy, she was almost as happy as it is given a mortal to be. But though she did not mourn over his absence, neither did she lose her interest in his welfare. She took the principal London and Paris papers upon the bare possibility of gaining intelligence of his movements.
Once she found his name in the list of visitors presented to the Queen at one of her Majesty’s drawing-rooms published in the “Court Journal.”
On another occasion she saw him announced as one of the speakers at a public meeting at Exeter Hall, noticed in the “Morning Chronicle.”
Again he was named as the owner of the winning horse at certain world-renowned races, reported in “Bell’s Life.”
That was all she knew about him.
Every week Drusilla received mis-spelled letters from her steward or housekeeper at Cedarwood.