“What is it, my dear? Calm yourself! All that you hold nearest and dearest are in this room with you. What trouble can come upon you?” inquired her husband, rising from his couch of pain and limping toward her.
She lifted the newspaper from the floor and handed it to him.
Lord Enderby looked from one to the other in perplexity. He did not like to ask a question—he waited to hear.
Odalite, Wynnette and Elva also waited in anxious suspense for their father to explain.
Not so Rosemary. Her agony of anxiety burst forth at length in a cry:
“Oh, Mr. Force! is my mother dead, or what?”
“No one is dead, my child. And no special evil has come to you,” said Abel Force. Then speaking to his expectant friends, he said: “There is a civil war at home.”
His explanation was like a bombshell dropped in their midst. All shrank away aghast and in silence.
Before any one recovered speech the door was thrown open, and Le burst in the room in great excitement.
“You have heard the news!” he cried; and that was his only greeting.