"Dinner has been waiting full half an hour, papa. And I would like to know where you and Odalite have been gadding to without saying a word to anybody. And I would like also to know--oh! how I should like to know--what has come to everybody in the house, that nobody but Elva and I and Miss Meeke have any common sense left!" exclaimed Wynnette, meeting the returning couple.
"Whereas the simple and exact truth is, that you three are the real and only lunatics in the house, and, like all lunatics, think everybody else but yourselves mad," laughed the squire, as he led his eldest daughter straight to the dining room.
Before the week was ended Wynnette, as well as every other member of the family, knew "what was the matter."
Beever, the overseer of Greenbushes, came to consult Miss Force about the size and quality of the Persian rugs to be bought for the bedrooms of the farmhouse.
And Mr. Force, in the presence of the whole family, said that henceforth all these consultations were to be suspended, as Miss Force had nothing further to do with the fitting up of the house.
This caused much surprise, not only to the overseer, but to Wynnette and Elva, who became importunate in their inquiries, and in a manner compelled an explanation.
Great was the indignation of those two young ladies on learning that their dear Le was to be "thrown over" for the sake of that "big, yellow dog," Col. Anglesea.
Wynnette and Elva went off to take secret counsel together.
Wynnette declared that she meant to talk to Odalite about it, and also to Col. Anglesea, and to tell him, if need were, that he was no gentleman to come into the house to cut out--
"No, I won't say 'cut out,' either, for it is vulgar; I will say supplant--that is the word, and I will say something better than I first thought of, too! I will stand straight up before him and lift up my head and look him straight in the face, and I will say to him:
"'Col. Angus Anglesea, do you consider it conduct becoming an officer and a gentleman to come into this house to supplant a gallant young midshipman, who is serving his country, in the affections of his betrothed bride?'"
"Oh! that will be splendid, Wynnette! What book did you get it out of?" innocently inquired Elva.