"I tried to make Capt. 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.
"Going to-morrow," said he. "Why I am going to Boston in a week--you had better stay and go with me."