"P. S. I will write to Mrs. E. soon."
"What string has pulled these wires that are twitching me home?" thought Fleda, as her eyes went over and over the words which the feeling of the lines of her face would alone have told her were unwelcome. And why unwelcome? "One likes to be moved by fair means and not by foul," was the immediate answer. "And, besides, it is very disagreeable to be taken by surprise. Whenever in any matter of my staying or going, did aunt Lucy have any wish but my pleasure?" Fleda mused a little while; and then, with a perfect understanding of the machinery that had been at work, though an extremely vague and repulsed notion of the spring that had moved it, she came quietly out from her window and told Charlton she would go with him.
"But not to-morrow?" said Mrs. Evelyn, composedly. "You will not hurry her off so soon as that Captain Rossitur?"
"Furloughs are the stubbornest things in the world, Mrs. Evelyn; there is no spirit of accommodation about them. Mine lies between to-morrow morning, and one other morning some two days thereafter; and you might as soon persuade Atlas to change his place. Will you be ready, coz?"
"I will be ready," said Fleda; and her cousin departed.
"Now, my dear Fleda,"' said Mrs. Evelyn, but it was with that funny face, as she saw Fleda standing thoughtfully before the fire; "you must be very careful in getting your things together "
"Why, Mrs. Evelyn?"
"I am afraid you will leave something behind you, my love."
"I will take care of that, Ma'am, and that I may, I will go and see about it at once."
Very busy till dinner-time; she would not let herself stop to think about anything. At dinner, Mr. Evelyn openly expressed his regrets for her going, and his earnest wishes that she would at least stay till the holidays were over.