Max made no reply, but sat there before her, looking very guilty and miserable.
"You must be hungry," she said presently, "and it is not easy to be brave and strong on an empty stomach. Suppose you go to your room and make yourself neat, then come into the other house and join me and the little folks in a nice luncheon."
The proposal was accepted with thankfulness.
Max looked several degrees less miserable after satisfying his appetite, yet all the afternoon seemed restless and unhappy.
Elsie said little to him, but many times silently lifted up her heart on his behalf, asking that he might have strength given him to do the duty he felt to be so difficult and painful.
As the time drew near when the pleasure-seekers might be expected to return, he slipped away out of her sight.
Presently the carriages drove up and deposited their load. Max stood waiting in the veranda, his heart beating very fast and loud, as his father, Violet, and Lulu came up the path that led from the garden-gate.
All three greeted him affectionately, expressing their regret that he had missed the pleasure of the excursion; then Vi and Lulu passed into the house and on upstairs.
The captain was about to follow when Max, stepping close to his side, said, with a slight tremble in his voice, "Papa, I—want to speak to you."
"Very well, my son, say on," answered the captain, stopping and turning toward him.