“Oh, yes, sir! yes, indeed! Please say how long you think we may drive without hurting them at all?”
“I presume a couple of hours of moderate exercise will not injure them,” he answered, still using his playful tone.
“I suppose we shall have callers from Roselands and Ion to-morrow,” Rose remarked to her husband.
“Yes, no doubt. And I think we should give a family dinner party as soon as our friends have had time to recover from the fatigue of their journey.”
“Our Ion friends to be included of course?” Rose said, half inquiringly, half in assertion.
“Oh, yes. I have few relatives who seem nearer than Travilla and his good mother. She was, as I believe I have told you before, an intimate and dear friend of my own mother. What is it, Elsie?”
The little girl was sitting in silence on his knee, her eyes fixed thoughtfully upon the carpet, and a slightly troubled look had come over her face.
“Please don’t ask me, papa,” she said, blushing.
“But I have asked you.”
“I—I was only thinking if Enna comes with the rest—”