“And we won’t,” added Lulu, squeezing Rosie’s hand affectionately.
“Lu, you’re very good,” murmured Rosie, close to Lulu’s ear, “and I haven’t been kind and charitable to you when you were in disgrace, even when it was partly my fault that you had done wrong.”
“Never mind; I hope we are not going to vex each other any more,” returned Lulu; and just then Zoe came running in to say that some new tableaux had been thought of, in which they were all to have more or less part, and they were wanted at once in Violet’s boudoir.
CHAPTER XIII.
On Saturday morning the last of the guests departed.
“Well, it’s all over!” exclaimed Lulu with a sigh, as she turned away from the window whence she had been watching the carriage that bore them till it disappeared from sight, “and it does seem dreadfully lonesome!”
“Dreadfully? quite that, daughter?” Capt. Raymond asked, taking her hand and looking down into her lugubrious countenance with a smile of mingled amusement and affection.
“No, papa; I believe that’s a little too strong,” she answered, with a not very successful effort to be bright and cheery; “but it does seem lonesome. Don’t you feel a little so your own self?”
“Well, no; I can’t say that I do. I have enjoyed entertaining our relatives and friends, and now I feel that it will be fully as enjoyable to have my wife and children quite to myself again for a time.”
“I echo your sentiments, my dear,” Violet said in a lively tone; “I have enjoyed the mirth and gayety of the past few days, but would not be by any means willing to live in such a whirl of excitement all the time; so now am full of content at being left alone with you and the children again.”