"They are well. I saw them yesterday. I went to the capitol with your mother and sister. Your father made a great speech on the tariff—the most brilliant and telling effort I ever heard from his lips. He was applauded to the echo. The galleries went wild."
"Dear papa. If I only had been there!" she cried, and her eyes kindled with pride.
"In the afternoon," he continued, "I attended Mrs. Winans and Ethel to the reception at the White House given by the president to the cabinet ministers, senators and representatives. It was a grand affair, and the banquet was magnificent."
"What did mamma wear? And Ethel?" she queried, with feminine curiosity over silks and laces.
Lord Chester laughed and said:
"Very few men can describe a woman's dress. I'm not an adept at it, but I remember how they looked. Your mamma wore a pale silvery-blue brocade, softened by dainty real lace and pearls and diamonds. She looked very beautiful. Your sister looked like a queen, in a white silk embroidered lavishly with gold. Her hair was arranged in Grecian style with a fillet of gold studded with rubies. She had so many admirers it was difficult for any one to get within speaking distance."
"Dear Ethel, she is so beautiful. She looks like papa, with his splendid eyes and rarely sweet smile! How I wish I had been there with them! But mamma has promised that I shall come out in society next winter. I shall be past seventeen then—too young, mamma and Ethel say, but papa is on my side, and we shall carry the day!" with a sunny, willful smile.
"You are General Winans' favorite, I know," returned the young man, smiling, and he said to himself that he applauded her father's taste. His betrothed was very beautiful and queenly, but her sister was the realization of a man's ideal of everything lovely and lovable.
"I wonder if they thought of me moping here in the country!" continued Precious softly.
"Yes, I am sure they did, for I heard your father saying to his wife that he had been thinking of you all the afternoon, and that he really must get away Saturday and spend Sunday with you at Rosemont."