The Arden Foresters found the summer days none too long. They still met Celia in the arbor now and then; and it was her stories of the Gilpin house, of the ring and the spinet, together with the constant sight of the closed shutters and doors, that led to an adventure one warm August day.
"Important meeting at the oak tree this afternoon,—a discovery!" was the startling announcement Rosalind found within the grass-tied missive on the cedar when she returned from a drive with her uncle one morning. She could hardly eat her luncheon for eagerness to know what the discovery might be, and the sound of Maurice's low whistle further upset her.
Mrs. Whittredge was rigid where table manners were concerned. Rosalind might not be excused until every one had finished; and to-day Uncle Allan dallied over his dessert, discussing business and the new mills with his mother, while Rosalind's impatience grew.
She looked up despairingly at the stern countenance of Great-uncle Allan, and then at the placid smile of his Matilda, which seemed a rebuke to her restlessness. "I wonder what you did with your satin dress?" she suddenly remarked aloud.
Grandmamma turned toward her in surprise, and Allan, deep in a description of the manufacture of a new kind of paper, looked at her blankly.
"Do you think it is polite to interrupt?" asked Mrs. Whittredge.
"I beg your pardon, Uncle Allan, I was just thinking. I did not mean to say it out loud," Rosalind explained, in great contrition.
"Evidently you were not interested in my learned discourse," he said, with a terrible frown, which was not at all alarming.
The diversion, however, caused him to remember his pudding, and in a few minutes Rosalind was free to join Maurice and Katherine at the gate.
Belle, who had called the meeting, was waiting for them at the top of the hill.