"You see," said Wynnette, confidentially, to Elva, on their way home, "that it was better for Odalite to take the bull by the horns at once--to face the music promptly--to break the ice bravely--to take the plunge and have it all over! Oh, you know what I mean well enough, Elf, although you pretend to look so puzzled! I mean, it was wise in Odalite to go to church on Christmas Day, just as usual--just as if nothing had happened there on the Tuesday before--and have it all over! And now it is all over. The great gun is fired, and no one is killed or wounded! That is to say that Odalite has made her first appearance in public after her catastrophe, and she has stood all the staring and has lived through it! And now she has made her second appearance, and escaped all the staring! And the battle has been fought and victory won! Do you understand?"
"I understand a little, but, if you go on explaining, I shall not understand at all," replied Elva, with the cruel candor of childhood.
On Monday morning, while the family party were gathered in the drawing room, opening their letters and papers, which the mail messenger had just brought from the post office, there came an early visitor.
Tom Grandiere, looking more red-headed, freckle-faced, blushing and blundering than usual, arrived, as the bearer of a verbal invitation to attend an informal party, to be composed mostly of young people, at Oldfield Lodge, on Thursday evening, the thirty-first, to dance the Old Year out and the New Year in.
"But, although," as he bashfully explained, "it was understood and intended to be a young folks' entertainment, yet the elders of the family were invited, and expected to be present with them."
This was quite in accordance with "the custom of the country," or, at least, of the county, as had been shown at the Christmas Eve gathering at Mondreer.
"We thank you very much, and we shall like to go, if we can," said Mrs. Force, as she left her seat and went to the front window, where Odalite stood looking out on the fast-gathering clouds.
"You heard Tom Grandiere's message, dear?" she asked, in a low tone.
"Yes, mamma," answered Odalite, who slipped a letter into her pocket.
"Then it depends on you, dear, whether we accept the invitation or not. If you prefer to stay quietly at home, be sure that we shall not go and leave you alone."