"Oh, she will not need anything for the voyage except some traveling rugs and wraps and a steamer chair. We can replenish her wardrobe in Paris for half what it would cost here, so you need not trouble yourself at all on that score. Will you come, Violet?" and Mrs. Hawley turned with a winning look to the fair girl.
"Say yes—do, Vio," pleaded Nellie; and then turning to Mrs. Mencke, she added: "You will let her, won't you?"
"I have half a mind to," mused the crafty woman.
"There, Vio," cried Nellie, triumphantly; "there is nothing to hinder now."
"It is very sudden—I will think of it and let you know," Violet began, reflectively.
"There will not be very much time to think of it," Mrs. Hawley remarked, pleasantly. "You had better decide the matter at once, and thus avoid all uncertainty."
"I will let you know by the day after to-morrow," Violet returned, but she lost color as she said it.
She wanted to go, to get away from her brother and sister, but she shrank from leaving Wallace.
"She is planning to consult that fellow," Mrs. Mencke said to herself, and reading Violet like a book; "but I will take care that she doesn't get an opportunity to do so."
Mrs. Hawley said no more, but arose to take her leave, feeling that she had done all that was wise, for that day, in the furtherance of her friend's schemes.