"Where do you suppose?" she answered merrily. "Well, the instant you are done your dinner you may go down and see them brought up."
"But father said it was your wish and his to make it a complete surprise to the children."
"Mildred included?" laughed his mother; "you are so much older than she. I will manage it. They shall all be out of the way while we unpack."
Mr. Keith came in presently, and with his arrival the call to dinner.
Mildred looked curiously at Rupert several times during the meal, wondering at his unaccustomed air of importance, the half-exultant, meaning glance he now and then sent across the table to one or the other of their parents, and the haste with which he swallowed his food and hurried from the table and the house, having asked to be excused, as he had business of importance to attend to.
"Dear me, what airs!" laughed Zillah, as he whisked out of the room. "One would think he was a man, sure enough."
"Girls," said Mrs. Keith, "I want you to take the little ones out for a walk this afternoon. It is a bright day and the walking good, and if you are all well wrapped up, you will not feel the cold."
"Not if they go at once," put in Mr. Keith.
"Run away and make yourselves ready, all of you."