"Bless my soul!" exclaimed Mr. Burke, stopping suddenly on his way to the door. "I forgot the Synod."
Mrs. Cliff hesitated for a moment. "I don't think it need make any difference! It would be a great shame to disappoint all those good men; why couldn't we take them along all the same? Their weight wouldn't make the yacht go any slower, would it, Mr. Burke?"
"Not a bit of it!" said he. "But they may not want to go so far. Besides, if we find the Captain at Kingston, we mayn't feel like going back in a hurry. I'll tell you what we could do, Mrs. Cliff! We wouldn't lose any time worth speaking of if we touched at Nassau,—that's in the Bahamas, and a jolly place to go to. Then we might discharge our cargo of ministers, and if you paid their board until the next steamer sailed for New York, and their passage home, I should think they would be just as well satisfied as if they came back with us!"
Mrs. Cliff reflected. "That's true!" said she, presently. "I can explain the case to them, and I don't see why they should not be satisfied. And as for me, nobody could be more willing than I am to give pleasure to these ministers, but I don't believe that I could give up seeing Edna and Captain Horn for the sake of any members of any Synod!"
"All right, madam!" cried the impatient Burke. "You settle the matter with the parsons, and I haven't a doubt you can make it all right; and I'll be off! Everything has got to be on board to-night. I'll come after you early this evening." With this he departed.
When Mr. Burke had gone, Mrs. Cliff, very much excited by what she had heard and by the thought of what she was going to do, told Willy that she could go on with the packing while she herself went over to the church in Brooklyn and explained matters to the members of the Synod who intended to go with her, and give them a chance to decide whether or not the plan proposed by Mr. Burke would suit them.
She carried out this intention and drove to Brooklyn in a carriage, but, having been delayed by many things which Willy wanted to know about the packing, and having forgotten in what street the church was situated, she lost a good deal of time; and when she reached her destination she found that the Synod had adjourned sine die.
Mrs. Cliff sighed. It was a great pity to have taken so much trouble, especially when time was so precious, but she had done what she could. It would be impossible for her to find the members in their temporary places of abode, and the only thing she could do now was to tell them the change in her plans when they came on board that evening, and then, if they did not care to sail with her, they would have plenty of time to go on shore again.