"Don't you know Fleda better, Papa," said Florence, "than to try to make her alter her mind? When she says a thing is determined upon, I know there is nothing to do but to submit with as good a grace as you can."
"I tried to make Captain Rossitur leave her a little longer," said Mrs. Evelyn; "but he says furloughs are immovable, and his begins to-morrow morning so he was immovable too. I should keep her notwithstanding, though, if her aunt Lucy hadn't sent for her."
"Well, see what she wants, and come back again," said Mr.
Evelyn.
"Thank you, Sir," said Fleda, smiling gratefully; "I think not this winter."
"There are two or three of my friends that will be confoundedly taken aback," said Mr. Evelyn, carefully helping himself to gravy.
"I expect that an immediate depopulation of New York will commence," said Constance, "and go on till the heights about Queechy are all thickly settled with elegant country seats, which is the conventional term for a species of mouse-trap."
"Hush, you baggage," said her father. "Fleda, I wish you could spare her a little of your common sense, to go through the world with."
"Papa thinks, you see, my dear, that you have more than enough, which is not, perhaps, precisely the compliment he intended."
"I take the full benefit of his and yours," said Fleda, smiling.
After dinner, she had just time to run down to the library to bid Dr. Gregory good-bye her last walk in the city. It wasn't a walk she enjoyed much.