Rosanna's sacrifice had not been so very easy, you know.
CHAPTER XV
Uncle Bob had very little to say until Colonel Maslin came in and they gathered around the dinner table. Then, with a smile, he commenced his little story.
"Rosanna has been asking me about a million questions. It would take a week or so, hard labor, to answer them all, and then Colonel Maslin and Claire would want to hear about things, so I will make my little speech now.
"We were all settled for the summer in a beautiful old place in the older part of Paris. Just the sort of a place you would love, Rosanna—high walls, and a park with sheep cropping the grass, and woods, and all that. Deer, too. It's too bad you are not there."
Rosanna flushed. "I don't mind, Uncle Bob," she said, and Claire squeezed her hand.
"Well," continued Uncle Bob, "Culver's invention is a bigger thing than we thought, and we thought it was pretty big. I was being worked to death with meetings and presentations and contracts, and all that. It is the one thing that commercial Europe needs today, and there was more work than I could carry.
"Besides that, there was a lot of blueprints, material and so on that I needed, and I wanted to get a look at Rosanna here. I'll say, sweetness, that your poor old Uncle Bob missed you something scandalous! So as long as I had to come as far as New York I thought I would run along and see you all.
"Culver is going back with me. He is the one man to help out over there, and it is too much for me. Besides," he added abruptly, "I thought if she didn't have any pressing engagement on hand, I would take Rosanna back with me."