"What? Your brother, and Mrs. Highwood and Miss Wardlow—aren't they going?"
"You know very well what I mean, you consummate hypocrite."
"And you know very well, or you ought to," said Jermyn, "that I'd gladly follow you all over the earth. Still, I can't force myself upon the remainder of the party."
"Then Trif shall invite you, at once," said Kate.
"Trif," Fenie was saying at almost the same moment, as her sister returned from an unsuccessful search for Trixy, "Kate has gone out to ask Jermyn to accompany us North; wouldn't it be the graceful thing for you, as the head of the party, to add your request to hers?"
"Where is he?" asked Trif. She was on the piazza soon after Fenie told her where the Lieutenant was.
"How kind and thoughtful of you!" said Jermyn. "I suppose," he continued hypocritically, "that I might possibly get permission to be absent a few days longer if——"
"That's all right," intruded the voice of Trixy. "You can go, and that ain't all—you'll get into a lot of trouble if you don't go. I've been to see the head man about it."
"The head man?" echoed Jermyn, while the others looked inquiringly at the child.
"Yes. Don't you know? I mean the man up at the fort, that all you soldiers have to ask when you want to do anything. I told him all about it, although he kept on interruptin', and sayin' 'yes, yes,' as if he wanted me to stop talkin'. I didn't stop, though, so at last he said, 'Little girl, I've already heard something about the matter. Please say to Lieutenant Jermyn, with my compliments, that he is to go to New York at once, and that he isn't to show his face here again for several days, and that if he dares to do so I may have him held to account for getting a leave of absence on false pretenses.' There!—I think I've told it just like he said it, so you see you'll have to go if you don't want to catch it."